


Mithrax the Forsaken has No House

by dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Captor and Captive, Dom/sub, Double Penetration, F/M, Interspecies Romance, Interspecies Sex, Size Difference
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-14
Packaged: 2019-01-04 12:54:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12169287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd/pseuds/dngrs_untld_hrdshps_unnmbrd
Summary: This fic is inspired by the Destiny 2 side quest Enemy of My Enemy, in which the Guardian goes up against the very regal and dashing Fallen Captain Mithrax the Forsaken, and can choose to spare him. Mercy the Hunter spares him, and then gets a little too preoccupied with Mithrax and sneaks aboard his Ketch, where things take an unexpected turn for her.





	1. Chapter 1

 

'Uh ... Mercy? You've kinda got me worried. Are you going rogue? Even rogue-ier than usual?'  

Cayde's voice sounded anxious over Mercy's Ghost but she didn't move her eyes away from the Fallen ketch overhead. She was too close to her goal to get distracted now. 

'Shut down the transmission,' she said quietly. 

Ghost whirred at her shoulder. _[I strongly recommend we reply to him, Guardian.]_

'And I strongly recommend you shut up.'

The little robot flashed disapprovingly but did as it was asked. Hunting this Fallen Captain had started as a preoccupation but now it had tipped over into obsession. She couldn't stop thinking about the one that got away. 

The one she'd _let_ get away. Twice. 

First she'd accidentally freed him from his Hive prison; or rather, Ghost had. He and his men outnumbered her but instead of attacking he'd _bowed_ to her. In thanks? He was huge, more than two feet taller in his golden armour and regal fur ruff, his purple bio-suit fitted tightly over his thick, strong body. He'd gazed at her for a few moments with his four glowing eyes while she’d stared back, dumbstruck. Then he and his men had disappeared into an elevator and were gone.

That split-second of foolishness meant she'd had to race him to the methane reactor that Sloane needed, cursing herself the entire way. Her name might be 'Mercy' but she'd chosen it for the irony. As in Show No Mercy. 

When she'd come upon the same Captain fighting a Hive Knight for the reactor, she'd killed the Knight -- and then hesitated. She'd wanted to see what he’d do. He'd brandished his swords at her, spoken something in his deep, harsh voice, and trans-matted away. Commander Zavala had been mildly interested in this strange turn of events but Ghost had waited till the line had been severed before it asked,  _[What did the Captain say?]_

Only Ghost knew that she'd been resurrected fluent in Eliksni. She preferred to keep this to herself, and her strange preoccupation with hunting Fallen. 'He said, "Consider this a debt paid, human creature."'

_[What a guy.]_

Maybe they were even, but that didn't mean what had happened sat right with her. She'd let an enemy walk free, twice, but it wasn't going to happen a third time. She'd tracked him to the EDZ and as soon as he left that Ketch she was going to kill him.

Except that he wasn't disembarking, and the Fallen who wore his markings seemed like they were getting ready to leave. She watched one Vandal after another trans-mat up to the ship. It was going to leave and she'd lose him.

Desperately wondering what to do, Mercy hovered behind the rocks she was crouched behind and then heard the sound of gunfire. The half-dozen Fallen milling around beneath the ship ran off to investigate.

In that split second, she decided. 'All right, new plan,' she muttered, and ran for the trans-mat device. 

 _[What? Mercy, wait!]_ Ghost called. But she'd wasted more than a week on this and it was going to end today. She reached the trans-mat, thumped the controls, and everything went silver. 

When she opened her eyes again she saw the hull of a Fallen Ketch, from the inside. Ghost stared around then, and then burrowed into its favourite pocket in her suit. It voice floated up to her ears. _[You are going to be in so much trouble.]_

'Cayde won't care as long as I kill the Captain.'

_[I wasn't talking about Cayde.]_

Right, where would this Captain be? She'd been watching this ship for hours and from their uniforms she'd seen no one more highly ranked than him appear. Was he a Baron, or even a Kell? 

The throne room, then. She'd start there. She made her way to the heart of the ship, keeping to the shadows and using all her Hunter training to remain unseen. The throne room was dark and cavernous, and empty.

Almost.

Her heart beat faster as she spied him. He sat upon his throne on the far side of the room, quite alone and seemingly sunk in thought. Mercy reached for the sniper rifle on her back -- but stopped. It seemed cowardly to assassinate him from the shadows when he'd shown her such honour. 

Mercy stepped forward into the light, her weapons holstered.  

The enormous Fallen looked up, but didn't start out of his throne at the sight of this intruder. He tracked her with narrowed, unafraid eyes as she strode slowly toward him and then stopped three feet distant.

His guttural voice spoke behind his mask. 'It is the human creature I let live.'

He stood, towering over her, his gold armour bristled with spines. Mercy felt the first stirrings of panic. What the hell was she doing? Had she imagined that there was some understanding between them? That he would let her kill him because she'd been clever enough to find her way aboard his ship?

He reached for his gun. 'Foolish human.'

Taking a step back, Mercy put up her hand and spoke in Eliksni, 'Wait. Tell me who you are.'

All four eyes of his eyes blinked. 'You speak my language, _sloat_?'

 _Sloat_. Prey. She waited, hardly daring to breathe, but that seemed to make him angry as he barked, 'Tell me!'

'I speak it. Now, tell me who you are and why you let me live.'

His eyes narrowed and she knew she'd angered him by giving him orders. 'Kneel,' he spat.

But Mercy wasn't going to die on her knees. When she didn't move or even drop her eyes from his face as she knew those of lesser rank should, he lunged at her and caught a fistful of cloak at the back of her neck and hoisted her off her feet. The fabric tightened around her throat and she began to choke. 

'You will submit to me, human creature, and then I will kill you.' He shook her so hard her teeth rattled. 'Agree, or you strangle now, slowly.'

'I bow -- to no -- one,' she managed to say, twisting violently in his grasp. 

He laughed, a deep, harsh sound, and began stripping the guns and knives from her armour and tossing them across the room. Then he yanked the mask from her face and threw that aside, too. She stared at him through the mess of her dark hair.

'You will kneel to me.' And after watching her struggle for another minute he threw her to the ground like a rag doll. 'I am Mithrax the Forsaken, and this is my Ketch.'

'I am Mercy,' she whispered in English.

'What?'

'Mercy,' she repeated in Eliksni.

'How easily you submit. It is disappointing,' he sneered.

'No, that's my name.'

He bent down toward her, looming over her, his huge armoured face filling her vision. 'You have no name unless I say you do, prisoner.'

Finally cowed into silence by his proximity and the ferocity in his voice, she waiting, fearing to anger him further before she had another plan. She eyed the symbols on his uniform as she rubbed her raw neck, and watched as he resumed his place on his throne, relaxing back against the purple padding.

Keeping her eyes lowered and sitting on the ground -- though not technically kneeling -- she asked, 'What House are you? I've never seen your markings before.'

'Mithrax the Forsaken has no House.' He sounded both angry and proud.

'They have forsaken you, or you have forsaken them?'

He watched her in silence for some time. 'I have never conversed with one of your kind before. You seem almost intelligent. I was Kell of House of Dusk, but I was usurped.'

'You wish to reclaim what is yours?'

He made a disgusted noise. 'Reclaim? No. I will destroy the House of Dusk, Every last Captain, Vandal and Dreg. I will crush them beneath my feet, take their mates and raise their young as my own. They will call me Kell, and I will be avenged.'

She risked a glance up at him as he sat so proudly on his throne, this Kell of no House. 'You would slaughter them all out of revenge?'

'I would slaughter them out of honour. Any Kell would do the same.'

She believed he would, and something swelled in her breast. Admiration? For hadn't she followed him here out of honour, to restore her own? Honour was one thing she understood. Probably the only thing. 

Besides, a Fallen ally might come in useful. _The enemy of my enemy_ , she thought. The House of Dusk had been a thorn in the Vanguard's side since the Red Legion attack. She got to her feet and moistened her lips, choosing her words carefully. 'Kell, let me help me in your mission. Let the Guardians help you.'

He made a derisive noise. 'The Guardians help me, when you can't even hold one City? You are lucky that it is not my mission to crush you.'

Anger flashed in his eyes as he regarded her standing boldly before him again, and she realised she was going about this all wrong. She fell to her knees before him, baring the back of her neck to his claws, his knives. If he were truly going to strike her down he would do it now, and then destroy her Ghost to make it final. But she hoped he wouldn't, and that her offer intrigued him. 

'I thought you would not bow to anyone, female. You are female, aren't you? It is difficult to tell with your kind.'

'Yes. And I meant what I said. I wouldn't bow to just _anyone_.'

There was a silence filled with meaning. 

When he spoke it was to dismiss her. 'Females cannot pledge allegiance for they cannot fight.'

'This one does.'

She waited, feeling his eyes on her, feeling him evaluating her offer. He leaned forward in his throne to examine her more closely, and when he spoke again his voice was silky and dangerous. 'What would your mate say if he knew you were kneeling before me?'

Surprise almost made her look up. 'Why would this have anything to do with my mate?'

He leaned down even further so that his masked face was close to hers. He almost purred, 'Because you are baring your neck to me and offering me rights, soft human.' And he reached out with one strong, clawed hand and wrapped it around her throat. 

'I have no mate,' she whispered roughly, barely able to speak through the choke hold he had on her. Panic spread through her limbs. He'd asked her to kneel and to win his trust she had. She didn't realise she'd been offering herself to him as well. 

'Would no one take you, female-who-fights-like-a-Captain?' He squeezed harder, making her eyes bulge. He dragged her up and onto her feet without standing up himself, and inspected her. He drew her closer to him until she was standing between his thighs. His tone was thoughtful. 'There are no females on my Ketch and it has been some time since I have mated. Too long.'

Mercy pulled at his clawed fingers around her neck. _Oh shit oh shit oh shit._

'You smell ... intriguing.' With two of his hands he began unfastening her suit, pulling her closer so that he could breathe in the places he uncovered. Her shoulder, her armpit, beneath her breasts. With a frustrated movement he rent the suit down to her waist, and when he pushed his mask against her nipples to smell her there she gasped.

'Sensitive and weak,' he said with scorn, mistaking her gasp for one of pain. With his fourth hand, the one not presently occupied with squeezing her throat or peeling her tight suit from her body, he rubbed the rough pad of his hand over her nipple as if curious about what it was. His claws scraped over her flesh, causing it to bud, and she whimpered. 

'So easy to cause you pain. Too soft, too small.' He sounded disappointed, and she should feel relieved that he was about to cast her aside. But it felt strangely good to be pinned between his thighs and handled roughly by him, and she felt a pang of disappointment.

Which was followed by a thrill of fear and desire as he said, 'But, female-with-no-mate, you will have to suffice. A punishment for your intrusion on my Ketch. _Ne shar zu._ ' _I shall be fierce._ He reached for his helmet. 'Have you ever seen a Fallen without his mask? I will terrify you.'

And he pulled off his head gear and threw it aside. His features were savagely reptilian, and gleamed darkly like the hard exoskeleton of a bug. His four eyes glowed and his jaw widened in a sinister grin, revealing rows of small, pointed teeth. 'Do I frighten you, female creature?'

Swiftly she nodded, for it was the truth, but she'd stopped struggling as her mind whirled. How did his kind mate? What was this going to entail? How did she _get_  in this position?

Mithrax continued to tug her suit from her body, working deftly with three hands while the fourth still held her about the throat. When she was naked he pulled her up so she was straddling his armoured lap and sat back to contemplate her at his leisure. One of his hands pinned her wrists behind her back and held her fast.

'How is it done?' he said to himself, spreading her knees and inspecting her with narrowed eyes. His clawed fingers probed at her, rubbing her slick labia, plucking her clit, though his touch was wary as if her parts might snap at him. Though he was rough his touch sparked sensations though her body and she arched toward him and spread her knees wider. _He's strange and ferocious, but I_ _... like his strangeness._

_By the Traveler, Mercy, when the fuck did you get this interested in the Fallen?_

The answer came swiftly. _Always._ And now she was spreadeagled in the lap of one of the largest, fiercest Fallen she'd ever seen. 

He kept exploring, and one thick finger sank a few inches into her, making her cry out. The claw was pliable and rubbed over a sensitive place. Her eyes were pinned to his face, she was panting swiftly, and she realised something. 

She hadn't been obsessed with killing Mithrax. She'd been obsessed with _finding_ Mithrax, this huge, handsome Fallen who had bowed so regally to her. And somehow, without consciously knowing that she was doing it, she'd offered herself to him. _If I can speak Eliksni maybe I know their customs too, and that baring the back of my neck to him was an offer of myself._

His thick finger was still pulsing into her, and her panting breaths sounded loud in the deserted throne room. Mithrax’s eyes were bright on her face. 

'There is one,’ he said, twisting his finger. ‘Where is the other?'

The _other?_  

He explored her with another finger, searching, probing, until he found the tight pucker of her ass. Slick with her wetness, he pushed at the entrance till it yielded and she cried out. In unison his fingers sank into her, then he pulled them out a little and pushed deeper, testing the feel of her.

'You feel strange, and wet, and small, but there are similarities to my species.’ She cried out as he pushed deeper, and he winced. 'But you are louder. If you must be in pain do it silently.'

He was mistaking her pleasure for pain?

Mithrax withdrew his fingers and began unfastened his plate and gauntlets without letting go of her. 'Debasing myself with a lowly human. I will have to kill you after to restore my honour.'

There was a bulge beneath his suit, between his thighs, and he scored it with his claws and rent the fabric open. She expected to see his organ but there was only a smooth plate with something pressing behind it. And then without the pressure of his armour, it slid out. Not one organ, but two, both thicker and longer than human penises, one positioned above the other. She got one startled look at him before he turned her around and splayed her legs open across his thighs. 

'If your parts injure mine I will break your neck,' he hissed, and taking a firmer grip on her waist he drew her down over his members. She felt his thick twin intrusions at each of her entrances, and yielded slowly, but too slowly it seemed as he made a frustrated noise and thrust forcefully. It achieved nothing, and this time she did cry out in pain.

He growled, angry now. 'You are too small, too tight. I will get no release from you.'

She could feel the throbbing heat of his need for her, and felt an answering pang deep within her. She looked over her shoulder and tried to speak but he was holding her throat too tightly. Noticing her mouth moving he released her a little.

'Let me try.'

He narrowed his four eyes as if he didn't trust her, and his hand around her throat squeezed, but then he released his grip on her waist. 

'My hands, too?' 

He growled in warning, but let them go, and watched her with blazing suspicion. 

Mercy felt down between her legs to the twin thicknesses lodged partway into her. They were sticky and slick, and hard with engorgement. Little bumps grew in ridges along them and she considered how good just one of his phalluses would feel. She opened her mouth to suggest that they try that, but saw how the light gleamed on his shiny white teeth and thought better of it. _Crap, what am I going to do? He'll started getting impatient in a moment._

There was only one solution: lubrication and arousal, and praying. 

She was already slick and swollen, but she licked her fingers and reached down between her legs, applying the spit to his members. Then she repositioned herself and eased down, breathing out to relax. Nothing happened for a moment, and then her flesh gave to his.  _Oh Traveler it's working. And it feels  ... oh it feels good._  He was large and thick but this small yielding made her want more. She raised up and sank down again, moaning as she worked him deeper. It was slow going but he hissed his approval, his clawed hands running up and down her back. He began thrusting with his hips, too eager to wait, and as he slipped in deeper his claws gripped her waist again and pricked her skin, drawing blood.

His phallusses were becoming more slippery and seemed to be coated with something that made her flesh tingle. She reached down and drew the moisture over her clit and rubbed circles on the nub. And as the pleasure mounted she found herself whispering his name softly and moving her hips more rapidly to match his thrusts. 

He noticed the movements of her hand. 'What is that you are doing?'

She turned her face to his, finding his jaws close to her mouth. 'It feels good to touch there.'

He swatted her hand away. 'I am in charge of this mating.' And he replaced her fingers with his own large ones. Watching her closely as he rubbed, he asked, 'You are not in pain then? This gives you pleasure, human female?'

Mercy nodded, licking her lips. She'd only taken half his lengths and could feel how eager he was to get fully into her. The tingling lubrication and the hot bead of pleasure he was creating with his rubbing were working, and she felt his twin thicknesses slip deeper. They were almost there. She moaned long and low, feeling the bumps and ridges on his cocks sliding in and out of her, before moving herself back and closer against him. 

He stilled her with his hands, claws digging viciously into her waist. 'I said _I_ am in charge.'

She took a deep breath. It was tempting to look him in the eyes but she kept them respectfully lowered. 'You also said you would let me try.'

Mithrax growled, as if conceding this was too much. She reached up and caressed his jaws with her hands, still not meeting his gaze. 'It is good, isn't it? I'm making it good for you?'

'It is ... acceptable. For now.'

Hiding a smile, she repositioned herself and pressed lower. He began to rumble deep in his chest and his thrusts became sharper and deeper. He was filling her, pulling down with his clawed hands and thrusting up with his hips, all the while his fingers rubbed on her clit. She couldn't remember the last time she felt anything so intense, and she wanted more. 

He thrust hard, all the way to the hilts, and all his arms came around her tightly, triumphantly. 'Your body submits to mine, however unwillingly.' He stood up, still deeply buried inside her, gravity driving him even deeper. He began to move her up and down on his thicknesses with sharp, eager thrusts, growling his pleasure all the while. She surrendered herself to him, even the hand that came up to hold her throat, and took pleasure in the surrender and his driving thrusts.

'Mithrax,' she moaned softly. 'Please.'

'Be silent. I won't stop till I've had my fill of you.'

'No, please don't stop.'

Clearly he thought she was saying only what she thought he wanted to hear, because he laughed and thrust harder. She'd never known pleasure like it, the feeling of being completely filled by a man -- though he wasn't a man. When she glanced down she could see his clawed hands on her skin and a myriad of scratches and beaded blood. She was growing hot in his arms, and either he was growing thicker within her or she was tightening because suddenly he felt huge, his cocks rubbing over sensitive spots deep within her again and again. Her cries began matching the pace of his strokes and she arched in his grip, driving him deeper, needing even more, and in answer to her movements he gripped her with his deadly, vice-like embrace and fucked her harder than she ever had been before. The muscles rippled along her inner walls, the world turned golden and she came violently, clenching rhythmically along his lengths. 

A cry tore from her throat, but he snuffed it with a tightening of his hand and her orgasm, restrained, suddenly doubled. Still thrusting, he asked, 'What is this thing you have done with your parts? Tell me.'

But she couldn't answer and he said louder, 'What is this your body is doing?'

Finally the sensations released her and she let her head fall back on his shoulder. Panting, she said, 'It was my climax. Did you not like it?'

'It is ... unexpected. Do it again.' He took two long steps toward a table at the side of the room and set her on her feet before it. Then, still inside her, he pushed her forward and spread her legs and ass open, seeming to watch as he fucked her. 'How did it happen? Why?'

She pressed her cheek against the cool surface of the table, closing her eyes as the sensations began to build again. 'Because you feel good. So, so good.'

* * *

Mithrax looked at the human-female's prone form before him, the too-small body that was squeezing him so tightly. He could feel his cocks rubbing against each other inside her, an odd sensation, but keenly pleasurable. Everything about her was odd but pleasurable, from her slick, squeezing flesh to her puny form. It somehow ratcheted up the sensations, seeing how her small, weak body looked against his hard, dark one. And though he loomed over her, taking his pleasure roughly and striping her skin with scratches, she made little mewling sounds in her throat and flexed her hips to drive him deeper. 

'You are strange, human-female, with your body that first won't yield and now submits. But you are learning that it is good to submit.' He caught her up in his arms, holding her almost upright, and buried his face in the back of her neck. He breathed in deeply, for her scent was pleasant there, and though he shouldn't honour her like this because she was base and low and fit only to be used, he'd wanted to do this the moment he saw the back of her soft, weak neck. He opened his jaws clamped around her nape, which drew a a groan of pleasure from deep within his chest. His thrusts slowed and became long and deep, her tight flesh rippling over the lengths of him. She walked her feet a little wider, allowing him deeper, and he groaned again.

He released her long enough to rasp softly, 'This is how my kind mate, the teeth in your neck keeping you still until your master is finished, for every male is the kell of his mate in this moment. I am showing you great honour taking you like this.' And he clamped his teeth around her again. One of his lower arms reached around beneath her and stroked her clit. 'That is the spot you like, isn't it, human-mate?'

Her voice was getting higher and breathier again, like it had before. 'Yes -- yes that's the place.' And with his teeth on the sides of her neck she asked, 'What can I do to make this better for you? What would your kind do?'

His tongue licked lovingly at the blood he'd drawn. She tasted like battle and victory. 'Let me take my pleasure in you, human-mate, and give me that ripply-tightness of your parts. You will milk my seed from me.'

He took his hand away from her throat and she gasped her disappointment. 'No -- hold me there.'

'But I won't be killing you after. Not this time.' 

'Please,' she whimpered. 

'Strange human-mate. But your instincts are good.' He pinned her wrists again and held her throat, and with his teeth buried in her nape he felt his completion nearing. She was whispering his name in her human accent as he pounded rhythmically into her. Her body began to tighten beneath his hold and around his cocks, and excitement shot through him. This was unlike any mating he'd had before. And as her cries grew louder and her flesh began to ripple and squeeze with her climax, and he felt his own rush up. His arms clamped around her and his teeth bit deep -- but not too much, she was his soft human-creature and he must not snap her. He pounded his pleasure into her as he felt the pump of his seed fill her. 

When he pulled out the grey-blue fluid leaked out of her, which he'd never seen before. She seemed too spent to move, but her pulled her over to his throne and across his thighs, holding her up with one set of hands while he pushed her mane out of her face with another and inspected her. 

She wasn't moving much. Had he killed her? 'Will you live, human-mate?'

The female laughed weakly, wrapped her arms around his neck and lay her cheek against his shoulder. He stiffened, not understanding her intentions, but as her fingers stroked his hard shell he realised that this must be some sort of human-bonding custom.

She was bonding with him? 

Mercy. That was her name in her language. 'Mer-cee,' he said out loud.

She curled her fingers into the fur that he wore across his shoulders. 'I have a pledge for you, Mithrax the Forsaken.'

Before he would have ignored her and her worthless pledge, but she'd proved herself a match for him. 'Yes, female-who-fights-like-a-Captain?'

'I will fight by your side to destroy those who have dishonoured you.'

He captured her chin in his claws and turned her face toward him. 'You are just one. What use do I have for just one?' 

When her eyes met his they did so without fear, without submission. 'Because I can convinced the others of my kind to fight with you. You won't be the first Fallen we have allied with.'

There could be some merit in that. 'But why does my fight matter to you, human-mate?'

She stood and sketched him a bow like the one he'd given her in thanks for freeing him and his men from the Hive. Her body was marked by his claws, a sight that stirred his members anew, and he wanted to reach again for her soft flesh. 

'Because honour,' she said simply, looking up at him, ‘is the most important thing.’

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your comments and kudos on chapter one! I got an amazing response to this story here and on Tumblr so I couldn't resist writing a second chapter. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> If you'd like to follow me on Tumblr for other Destiny and Fallen shenanigans this is me: dngrs-untld-hrshps-unnmbrd.tumblr.com

Mercy fished her wrecked suit off the throne room floor and Ghost fell out of a pocket. As she examined the rends Mithrax had made in her clothes it hovered first over her left shoulder and then her right, and finally in front of her face. 

She glared at the little robot. 'Go on, get it out of your system.'

_[I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.]_

She glanced to where Mithrax was lounging on his throne, regarding her naked form with a speculative gleam in his four eyes. His suit was in tatters, too, hanging open down his chest, but he seemed in no hurry to do anything but watch her. Smiling at the large Fallen she said, 'I'm not.'

Ghost whirred and clicked. _[Okay, now I'm mad. I can't believe that you would do such a reckless, ludicrous --]_

She held the suit out. 'Can you fix this? Otherwise it's going to be a cold journey home.'

Muttering, Ghost did as it was asked and mended all the rends and tears in the fabric.  _[And those marks he left all over your body? I assume you want my help healing those?]_

Mercy, who was wriggling into her suit, paused to look down at herself. She was covered in scratches and could feel the prickle of teeth marks in the back of her neck. _Teeth marks from when he bit down on the back of my neck as he came._ She felt tender between her legs, too, from the liberal pounding he'd given her with his two cocks. _I can't believe I just did that. I can't believe how amazing it was._

'Actually, no. I rather like these. Souvenirs.' 

Once she was fully dressed except for her hood and mask and had retrieved all her weapons from the side of the room, she turned to Mithrax and sketched him a bow, lowering her head so he would see the back of her neck. She heard an answering growl deep within his chest and knew he was looking at his teeth marks there. 

Smiling to herself, she pulled on her mask and hood and sauntered out. 

* * *

'What's the saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend?' Mercy looked round at Zavala, Cayde and Ikora, waiting for their response for her idea. It was a good idea. So why were they just staring at her?

Zavala hesitated, and then said, 'The fact that this Fallen Captain is interested in an alliance is ... surprising.'

Surprising? She'd hoped for something more solid than that, but at least he wasn't outright against the idea.

Ikora folded her arms and frowned, her eyes narrowed. 'The fact that you were able to communicate with him in such detail is surprising.'

Mercy gave the Warlock a tight smile. 'I learned some Eliksni from Variks out in the Reef. I'm good with languages.' Lies. She didn't know 'some' Eliksni, she was fluent, and she'd be resurrected this way.

Looking around at the three Vanguard she saw they were all hovering between being sceptical and suspicious. Damn. She wasn't convincing them. 'He's lost control of the House that is rightfully his. If we help him get it back we'll have a powerful Fallen leader on our side.'

Cayde snorted. 'If he couldn't keep it maybe there's a good reason. Like he's not strong or clever enough to --

She rounded on him, snarling, 'You don't know what happened. Maybe he was cheated.' Or maybe there _was_ a stronger Kell in charge of the House of Dusk now, who knows. But she didn't give a damn about other Kells, she gave a damn about Mithrax. When she imagined him in his rightful place she felt a clenching low in her belly. Honour, power, that was what mattered to her. That was what excited her. He excited her, and he was the first thing to do so since she'd been resurrected.

Everything she did was for the Vanguard. She wanted something of her own for a change.

The Exo put up two hands in a _whoa_ gesture. 'Okay, sure, maybe he was cheated. Keep your cloak on.'

Zavala didn't look happy, but he was the one she appealed to as he'd already shown himself interested in Mithrax's actions over the methane reactor. 'I thought peace was our aim, not genocide. Just meet with him and see what he has to say. I can translate. If it works out, House of Dusk could be eliminated as a threat throughout the whole system and Mithrax may be persuaded to help us fight against the Vex, Hive and Cabal.'

The commander thought for a moment, his hands clasped behind his back. 'That's a lot of ifs and maybes, but all right. I'll meet with him in a neutral place of his choosing. Do you have a way to contact him?'

Happiness burst in her chest. 'No. But I'll deliver your message and then report back. Thank you, sir.'

She left the Vanguard with a light step and headed for her quarters. She had gone straight to see them when she'd returned to the Tower and was still sticky with Mithrax's blue-grey come inside her suit. It was about time she had a shower. Standing beneath the stream of hot water she closed her eyes and the Fallen Captain appeared in her mind. A moment later she unhooked the shower head from the wall and held it between her legs, the water gushing against her clit, going over ever tiny detail of their encounter. How he'd held her tightly, almost brutally. How each of his twin thrusts seemed to say  _submit to me, submit,_ and she remembered how he'd shouted his triumph when her body finally had and his thick members were all the way inside her. She came as she remembered how he'd called her _human-mate_ and bit down on her, telling her he was honouring her as one of his own. 

When she opened her eyes again she smiled. This was a win-win situation. The Guardians would establish some peace and she'd find some way to have a quiet hour or so with Mithrax aboard his Ketch again. Maybe even more than once. She had a feeling it wouldn't be long until she saw him again. 

* * *

Where the fuck was he. 

Mercy had been running patrol after patrol for weeks now in the EDZ, Nessus and Titan where the greatest concentrations of Fallen were. Every time she saw a Fallen Captain garbed in purple and gold her heart leapt -- but it was never him. She could tell because they were too small or didn't move with his prowling grace. Also they tried to kill her as soon as they saw her, which she was sure Mithrax wouldn't do. Probably. 

Back at the Tower she sat alone over her dinner, pushing the food around her plate and stewing, her teeth grit painfully.  _I need to come._

She cast her eyes over the male Guardians in the room and considered going to bed with one of them just for the release. But the thought of sex with one of her own felt flat and stale. It was like a fever, needing Mithrax.

 _I was a Fallen-fucker in my first life, wasn't I? I was resurrected preoccupied with the Fallen and I thought it was because I wanted to kill them._ She was Awoken, so maybe she'd lived in the Reef and had got up close and friendly with some House of Wolves Fallen before they'd rebelled. Living amongst Fallen, lucky other-Mercy. 

She shoved her plate away. Who cares what she'd been. This was the life that mattered and she wasn't getting what she needed.

As she left the hall the tail end of a conversation reached her ears. '... so weird. I've seen the Fallen do odd things before but never attack their own.'

Mercy spun on her heel and saw three Titan's sitting together. 'What did you say? A Fallen attacked one of their own? Was it a Captain? A big one?'

The one who'd spoken looked surprised, but then leaned back in his seat and hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his off-duty sweats. 'Mercy. What's it to you?'

Her eyes narrowed at him. 'I'm not in the mood for games.'

He grinned. 'Well, I'm --'

She pulled out her knife and slammed it tip-first into the table, right next to the Titan's hand. 'Just. Fucking. Tell me.'

The Titan snatched back his hand and sat up. 'Wow, okay? Someone said you had a ladyboner for killing Fallen. My Fireteam were knocking out a Servitor near the Exodus Black and this bug rolled up in his Ketch with about fifty Vandals and Dregs. Thought we were all about to get wiped but they went for the Servitor, not us, and crushed it.'

'Did you kill him?'

'Nah. Couldn't get to him. He's all yours.'

She yanked her knife out of the table and twisted it thoughtfully in her hands, trying to ignore how fast her heart was beating. 'Do me a favour? Tell Zavala about this next time you see him. He'll understand what it means.' Then she sheathed her knife and turned away.

'A thank-you would be nice!' the Titan called after her. But Mercy was already out of the room. 

* * *

If Mithrax was knocking out big House of Dusk Servitors she'd focus on finding those. Devrim was able to point her to a place in the EDZ where ether extraction sometimes happened, and she staked it out. 

On the second day an enormous House of Dusk Servitor and half a dozen Vandals appeared and started an extraction. She pulled herself into a crouch behind some bushes. She watched, and waited. And waited some more. Where was Mithrax? The ether extraction was nearing its end and she didn't have another plan for finding him.

The extraction ended, and the Fallen left. Mercy screamed in frustration and stood up, about to pull out her hand cannon and fire it blindly into the ground when someone grabbed her from behind. Two right arms hooked around her waist and pulled her back against a hard body. An armoured face pressed into the back of her neck and breathed in, and a deep, rasping voice murmured, 'Human-mate.' 

Mercy sagged back against him and closed her eyes. Mithrax. 

He angled his face into the other side of her neck and breathed again. 'I've missed your smell.'

She turned in his arms and looked up at him, heat flooding her veins. She saw his four glowing eyes behind his spiked helm. The gold and purple armour and the thick fur across his shoulders. She knew the heft and size of him, and the way he held himself. Like a Kell.

His arms tightened around her body as he looked down at her. 'What are you doing, Mer-cee?' He said _Mercy_  at the front of his mouth, unlike his Fallen speech which was spoken in the back of his throat, and he lisped her name slightly. Past his left arm she could see his men standing a few feet distant, watching her and their Captain curiously.

Her hands tightened on his shoulders. 'Looking for you. I've got a message from --'

'Looking for me?' He made a clicking-chirruping noise, did something with one hand which she couldn't see, and the world turned silver. When it cleared again she saw he'd trans-matted them up to his throne room, and they were alone. She staggered slightly and pushed away from him in surprise.

He caught her up in one set of his arms again, the other set pulling away her hood and her head gear. She felt the prick of his claws as he searched for a way into her suit. 

Her hands covered two of his. 'I said I wanted to talk to you. I've got a message.'

'Talk after. I want you now.'

'No, it's important that I ...' She trailed of as one of his clawed hands briefly captured her throat in a caress. _Screw it, it’s not so important that it can’t wait._

She disarmed herself and threw the weapons away as he did the same. When he reached for his helm she knew a moment of uncertainty. Would the spell have broken since the last time and she'd know only revulsion as she looked upon him? He threw his mask aside and she saw his dark, reptilian features, his rows of tiny, sharp teeth, his flexing mandibles, and she wasn't repulsed or afraid. He was strange and he was fierce. He was her enemy, too, or should be. But right now in this moment he was all she wanted. 

He had her stripped half naked before her mind started thinking about practicalities. 'Not here. Do you have sleeping quarters? Somewhere we can lie down?'

Clawed fingers scratched over her belly, and he seemed to marvel at the way her flesh yielded to his touch. He reached for her breasts and plucked at her nipples, pulling at them and letting them go. Pleasure-pain shot through her and she came up on her toes, arching against him.

Oh, Traveler, she'd missed him.

'Ah yes, that place is sensitive,' he murmured to himself. 

'Quarters, Mithrax. Where are they?'

'Why do you want to lie down? Is it because you are so weak after you mate? I will hold you up.' 

 _That's almost romantic._ His four hands were working at the rest of her suit, far more dexterous and insistent than her own two, and a moment later she was naked. As if reacquainting himself with her body he stroked her thighs and squeezed her behind, his eyes bright. 

'Humans usually mate lying down. It's more comfortable that way,' she pointed out. Mithrax frowned as if he found this very strange. Not that she hadn't enjoyed straddling him on his throne and the other positions in which he'd fucked her, but she wanted to show him other possibilities. 'Also it's more private in a bedroom.' 

'I'm not human, I'm Eliksni, and my men value their lives too much to intrude on me right now.' His clawed fingers were between her legs, sliding through the slickness there, rubbing firm circles on her clit. He remembered just how to do it. It was tempting to give in and let him do his ferocious best here and now, but she gripped his wrists and looked into his eyes. 'You like it when I come, don't you? Humour me.' 

His flat nostrils flared. 'I do like that. All right. Follow me.'

He led her to a darkened antechamber with a pile of furs on a raised platform. No bed, and the platform was too narrow. Improvising, she lay the furs out on the floor and turned to him. He was pulling off his armour piece by piece, and though his expressions were different to her own he seemed to be scowling. 

'Is this what humans do, they mate on the ground?' He unfastened his purple suit and peeled it away from his body and legs, and she saw him properly naked for the first time. In essence their body shapes were similar, but he was larger and longer limbed than she was, and instead of being muscled and hairy he was ridged with plates down his chest. He'd feel hard beneath her hands and thighs, she recalled, but warm too, and very strong. 

'Not exactly on the ground. I'll show you. Lie down beside me.' She got down on the furs and reached for him, and reluctantly he joined her. He lay on his side, stiff and uncomfortable, and still scowling.

'When do we stand up and mate.'

Trying not to laugh, Mercy wriggled closer to him and put out her hands to touch him. His shoulders and hips were supple beneath her stroking fingers. 'We stay lying down. First we --' she was about to say _kiss_ , but looking at his jaws she changed her mind '--touch each other or lick each other for a while, and then you lie on your back or get on your knees and --'

'Mithrax the Forsaken does not get on his knees.'

'No it's not like that. You see --'

' _Mithrax does not_.'

She took a deep breath, wondering if it was a waste of time trying to teach a very stubborn alien how to have sex like a human. And why was she bothering? She'd liked his ferocity last time and the way he'd held her and bit and scratched her. 

 _But it's nice to start slow sometimes, and if he listens to me he will enjoy this._  'Yes, but I'll be beneath you and you won't actually be kneeling. Does that make it acceptable?'

He growled. 'Why must we do this all your way. It was all your way the last time.'

She reared back, incredulous. 'Excuse me? I assure you it was _not_ all my way. It was very much your way with a few small suggestions from me that meant it actually _worked_.'

'I let you order me around as if I were a Dreg.'

He sat up, looming over her, and it wasn't a bad start to how she wanted him to end up so she hooked one thigh around his hip and wriggled beneath him. His penises were still behind their plate but there was a bulging at his crotch. 

Running her fingers down his chest she looked up at him, angling her chin so he could see her neck. One his hands came up and stroked her throat. 'Do you remember how much you enjoyed it when I climaxed?'

His gaze sharpened. 'Yes.'

'Do you want me to do that again?'

'Yes.'

'Then let me teach you some human customs that I like.'

He thought for a long time, one of his clawed fingers trailing through her sex. 'I remember you like this.' He stroked her clit as another hand tightened on her throat. _Let him keep doing that, let him keep rubbing and make you come and then fuck you pressed against the wall like you've thought about every damn day since you first saw him._

But her eyes opened and she found her voice. 'Yes, Mithrax, I do. But let me try something else, on you? Lie back.'

To her amazement he did as she asked, and she positioned herself between his legs and lowered her head. He gripped her shoulders in alarm. 'Teeth? Teeth there?'

'No, tongue there. No teeth. No biting.' She looked at his mouth and muttered, 'Definitely no biting if you try this.'

'What?'

'Nothing. I'll show you. I won't hurt you, I promise.'

He half sat up and watched her, eyes narrowed, hands ready to take hold of her, snap her, if she did anything to hurt him. The plate between his legs was still closed and she leaned down and licked it, long and lovingly. He made an interested sound, and when she licked again it moved beneath her tongue and she felt his phalluses emerge, thick and hot and slick. Her tongue plied their bumpy, ridged, surface. He tasted sharp, like green fruit, but not unpleasant. His claws wound in her hair, holding her tightly.

'So you don't try anything,' he warned.

'You don't trust me, Fallen-mate?' she asked, licking up the length of one of his members and smiling.

'No.'

All right. How to go down on someone with two cocks? Two very large cocks that she definitely couldn't fit in her mouth at the same time. She wrapped her hand around one, stroking up and down, and took the other in her mouth, pushing him all the way to the back of her throat and then up again. He made a sound deep within his chest and his claws tightened in her hair.

'Is that good?' she asked. 

He was still watching her warily. 'It is good. When will you attend to them at the same time?'

Contemplating him, she pushed the two members together and licked across their tops. Then she began circling them in a slow figure eight pattern with her tongue, stopping now and then to suck one and then the other. 

Mithrax half growled, half groaned, and lay back. 'I like this human custom. I want this on my throne.' 

 _Of course you do._ She watched him as she worked him with her mouth, his large body supine, his arms out-flung. That strange secretion she'd noticed from his phalluses the first time was making her mouth tingle, and she rubbed some of the stickiness over her sex. Instantly the sensations beneath her fingers were ratcheted up and she moaned, one of his cocks deep at the back of her throat. 

Mithrax sat up suddenly, a clawed finger seeking out her sex and pushing into her tight channel. 'You are so slippery when I touch you. Are you always slippery? Females of my kind are not so.'

His fingers found the sensitive place deep inside her behind her clit, and stroked it firmly. The world threatened to slide out of her control. 'Only when I'm ready for sex.'

'At last.'

She licked his secretions off her lips. 'No, wait a moment. Just a few more customs. Can I ... see your tongue?'

'Strange human-mate. Why?'

'I just wanted to know if it's soft or not.'

'Did you want it on that place that feels good?'

She curled her arms around his neck and breathed, 'Yes please. If you want to try that.' His anger and suspicion seemed to have fallen away. _What do you know, blow jobs work wonders no matter the species._

He bowed his head in a brief nod. 'My teeth will not touch you, and I will try not to slice you with the barb.'

_'What.'_

He pressed his forehead against hers, his mandibles flexing. 'It is something to make you laugh.'

'Oh, you mean a _joke.'_

'Joke? We do not have that word in our language.' He pushed her flat and looked down at her. 'I want to do this but you are not accessible if I stand up.'

She lay back on the furs and opened her legs, letting her fingers play over her slickness, rubbing her clit and then pushing two fingers inside herself for a moment.

Mithrax watched, fascinated. 'It is ... like a flower.'

'Thank you.' She waited, watching him. 'You'll have to lie down if you want to lick me.'

The scowl was back, but finally, as if getting into a too-hot bath, he sank down onto one set of elbows, and planted his other hands on her inner thighs, splaying her open. She watched him lower his massive head, saw the rows of sharp teeth just inches from her sex. A primal instinct told her to snap her legs shut and run, that he was going to hurt her, but she made herself lie still. He had trusted her. She would trust him. 

His tongue flicked out, the same blue-grey colour as his seed, and it was thick and flexible and with a slight fork at the end. That explained his lisp. But she wasn't thinking of his voice a moment later when he pushed his tongue deep inside her and found that spot that felt best.

'By the fucking Traveler, Mithrax,' she moaned, curling her fingers in the furs. He pulled out and lapped at her clit, curious licks in between looking at her face. His clawed fingers found her sex, and then her ass, rubbing over her for a moment. Then he pressed slowly into her even as he kept licking. She sat up and looked down at him, his savage features being so tender, his claws that could rip and tear feeling so sweet inside her most sensitive places.

‘So small and tight, human mate. I don’t understand how you fit all of me inside.’

When he pulled his fingers out a moment later she whispered, 'Don't get up, just scoot up here a little. Put your hands either side of my head.' His cocks were pressing against her sex and she took one of them in her hands, the lower one, which was longer and thicker than the other, and guided it to her entrance. With a flex of her hips he was sinking into her and she wrapped her legs tightly around him. 

'Just one?' he asked, moving his hips so he could press all the way to the hilt and then out again, his pace slow and exploratory. 

'Just one at first,' she replied, enjoyed the feel of the bumps and ridges along his length as he moved in and out of her. 

'When do you take the other, when you mate with your kind?'

'I don't. My kind only has one.'

All four of Mithrax's eyes opened wide. 'Only one member? Mer-cee, no wonder you come to me for satisfaction.'

She smiled up at him. 'No wonder. Does this feel good for you?'

'For now. I like ... seeing these things your face does. I think you are in pain, but it is the look you make when you climax. You look very strange, then. But good strange.'

His nostrils flared as if the memory had stirred something in him, and he suddenly pulled out and turned her over. He stayed on his knees and catching on to what he was doing she raised her hips up and leaned back. One set of his hands held her tightly about the waist and the others were on his members, sliding them against her sex and the pucker of her ass. She breathed out, making her body relax for him, and he pressed forward, slower and more patiently than he had the first time they had been together. She felt the tip of his phallus pressing into the tight ring of her ass, which resisted for a moment, and then she felt him sink in. The twin thicknesses of him felt huge inside of her already and he was only an inch or so deep.

She heard his hiss of satisfaction. 'Is this a human position for mating?'

He pushed deeper and she came up on her hands, her neck arching. 'Yes,' she panted, and leaned back onto him, working down his lengths, needing to feel him inside her again. Halfway in, he began to thrust, growling softly, the hands at her waist prickling her with his claws. 

'I like it. You are so soft, Mer-cee. Like a small creature that has fallen out of its nest. A little pet that needs to be protected, with your blunt teeth and your flesh that bleeds at the slightest scratch.' He leaned over her, one of his hands tightening around her throat, the pressure making the blood pound in her sex. 

She turned her head to look at him, smiling. 'You should see me fight. I might bleed but my enemy bleeds more.'

'Is that so, human-mate. I've thought about keeping you as my little pet and mating with you whenever I liked.' He sank another inch into her and she moaned. 'But you're fierce, aren't you, Mercy-my-pet. Would you kill me in my sleep if I kept you?'

Mercy opened her mouth to answer but one of his clawed fingers reached beneath her and rubbed firmly on her clit. He began to fuck her in earnest and her orgasm, which had been hovering near, grew. 

'Or would you stay aboard my Ketch and let me lick at you, and get down on the ground with you like this for mating? You like this, don't you human-mate?'

He stroked his clawed hands down her back, deep enough to leave marks, and leaned over her. 'Look, Mer-cee, your customs and mine together. Made better.' Then, his voice rasping in her ear, 'I can feel your climax nearing,' and he bit savagely down on her nape. Even as he held her tightly, pinned her with his cock, bit her deeply, her orgasm was strong and her body flexed beneath his, squeezing him rhythmically as she pulsed out her pleasure on him.

* * *

Mithrax felt her climax pass off and took a firmer grip on her. He wasn't done with her yet and he felt a keen satisfaction that her own kind couldn't give her this, no matter what customs and positions they tried. How lacking they were with their one phallus and their two hands, and to show her how much better it was with him he stroked her, scratched her, twisted her nipples and rubbed her clit with his four hands, touching all the places he knew she liked. Her first climax had made her eager for more and she wriggled back against him, wanting those final inches. He held still, watching her small, sweet efforts to take the rest of him into her. She pressed back and then again, moaning his name, the tightness of her squeezing him even as she yielded. Look how she wanted to submit to him, how much pleasure it gave her. 

Finally he was lodged deep within her and she pressed her face into the furs, breathing deeply. But this wasn't time to rest. Liking her prone he reached down and took her wrists, pinning them behind her back in one of his hands.

'Soft, fragile human-mate, who claims to be so fierce.' He fucked her steadily, setting a pace he liked and watching the expressions flitting over her face. It was the look of pleasure that appeared so much like pain, but her mouth was soft and she made that moaning sound that meant she felt good. His own climax was gathering at the roots of his members, spreading to the tips in slow waves that matched his deep thrusts, making him work her harder. He studied the marks he'd already made in her neck, bright red against her pearly blue flesh, so like the marks she'd bared so proudly to him as she'd bid him goodbye the first time. How good they looked on her.

He reached for that nub between her legs again and the pitch of her cries sharpened. Her back arched as he continued to work the bead beneath his fingers and his teeth found her neck as a hand clenched around her soft throat. She'd dissolved into whimpering in her own language, but he heard his name amid the strange sounds, and as she cried out he felt her clamp tightly around him. It was the sensation that he'd thought about every day since he'd first felt it, the strength of her body matching his, amazing him, exciting him. His own climax rushed up to meet hers and he felt himself gush within her, all four eyes tightly squeezed shut, jaws wanting to bite deeper but wary of her fragility. His fingers still worked on that sensitive spot between her legs, needing to draw out their pleasure for as long as possible for these final deep thrusts. 

Finally her body slackened beneath his and his teeth and claws released her. He watched, amused, as he eased slowly out of her and she slumped down onto the furs, breathing hard. He made to stand up but she caught him with her hands and pulled him down. She wriggled against him, pressing her damp face against his chest.  

'What are you doing?'

'It's nice to hold each other afterwards,' she said. 

He felt restless and strange on the ground, but looking at that expression on her face, the one that meant she was pleased or happy, he thought he could occupy himself with this for a time. With each of his arms he supported her form against his, so she might be comfortable, and she made a soft sighing noise and closed her eyes.

'You are a very strange female. I would not let just anyone tell me to do these things. Get on my knees. Lie down after mating.'

'Where I'm from it's normal for people to tell each other about the things they like.'

He thought for a moment. 'I think you must have to often teach the males of your species these things as you are a very patient teacher.'

Mercy buried her face in his side and her shoulders shook. After a moment he realised she was showing mirth.

'You're not wrong, Mithrax. Now, I actually did come to talk to you about something. My superiors are interested in allying with you against the House of Dusk so that you may take it back.'

I tight ball of suspicion formed in his chest. 'Why would they want such a thing?'

'Because an allegiance would be good for both of us. We're both threatened by other enemies and we'd be stronger together. And House of Dusk is rightfully yours.'

'You asked them to do this thing?'

'Yes.'

She said it simply without contrivance, and something joined the suspicion in his chest. Admiration for this small human who liked his teeth and ferocity, and who seemed to understand matters of honour. 'They must esteem you to listen to one of their subordinates.'

'Well, I hope so. They want to meet you somewhere neutral. Perhaps near --'

'I will receive them on my ship. In my throne room. You as well, I want you at my side.'

Mercy hesitated and looked up at him. 'I can't be at your side, and surely it's better to meet somewhere we can all feel comfortable?'

He rolled her onto her back and pressed her beneath him, letting his hands stroke over her soft flesh, enjoying this moment. The humans wanted an allegiance with him. How pleasing this was.

'I'll not discuss the future of my House standing on dirt. On my ship or not at all. Tell them that, Mer-cee.'

* * *

'What's he doing here?' Mercy eyed the party that was about to board Mithrax's Ketch, her heart beating wildly. Commander Zavala, Sloane -- and Variks.

Zavala glanced at the Fallen, and Variks gave Mercy a polite nod. 'We felt it was better to have someone fluent in Eliksni negotiate with this Fallen.'

'Oh. All right.' Mercy led the way into the ship, her cheeks flooding with colour. Would Variks know what had happened between her and Mithrax? Would he tell the Vanguard? _Oh shit oh shit oh shit._   _I'm not ready to deal with this today._

Mithrax was sitting on his throne looking large and regal. When his eyes fell on Variks they narrowed in suspicion. 'Who is this stranger? You are allied with a House already?'

Variks bowed, and began to explain who he was and why he was there. 

Mithrax turned to Mercy. 'You trust this Eliksni, human-mate?'

 _Oh, Traveler._ 'Yes, I trust him.'

'What did he say?' asked Zavala. 

Variks hesitated, and then answered smoothly. 'He asked Mercy if she trussssted me, and she ssssaid that she did.'

Mercy could barely followed the conversation after that, her thoughts preoccupied with what Sloane and Zavala were going to say when Variks finally told them what Mithrax had called her. 

'... All right,' Zavala was saying. 'Tell him that we'll join him in this attack, and together we'll see that the enemy Ketch is destroyed.'

Variks relayed the information and bowed to Mithrax, Commander Zavala inclined his head and Sloane reluctantly followed suit before they all headed outside. Mercy hovered, wanting to stay and talk to Mithrax but knowing she needed to go with the Guardians. She cast Mithrax a last look, bowed as deep as Variks had, and then hurried after them. 

Outside the three were talking. 

'Can we trust him?' Zavala asked. 

Variks directed the tiniest glance at Mercy. 'I don't know. It will be good for him, thisssss allegiance, yes? So we can trust him for now.' 

Sloane shrugged. 'It is a start. He's likely just as wary of us as we are of him.'

Variks was thoughtful. 'But what happens when we help him get hissss House back, what will he want then? Peace, or more war?'

* * *

It was a strange day, seeing ranks of Fallen standing among the Guardians. At Mercy's suggestion Mithrax's men had tied red armbands around each of their limbs so they could identify exactly which House of Dusk Eliksni they were meant to be fighting. This wasn't the Kell's Ketch they were attacking, but one of the barons’, and it would be a strategic victory if they won the battle. 

Mithrax drew his swords. 'Will you fight by me, human-mate? I want to see that no harm comes to you.'

She looked up at him through her mask. 'I'll fight by you, but not so you can keep an eye on me. I can look after myself.'

Mithrax seemed to scowl at this, but didn't have time to speak as the signal went up. It was time to attack. Guardians and Fallen raced for the Ketch, overwhelming the enemy Eliksni and heading for the hull. 

'Reinforcements,' called Mithrax, looking overhead. Six Captains and several dozen Vandals and Dregs dropped onto the battlefield. Mercy was cut off from Mithrax, and heard his roar of indignation as three Captains surrounded him. They shouted curses at him, seeming to know exactly who he was. She took out her Fusion rifle and aimed at the one closest to Mithrax, and he dropped after two well aimed zaps. 

The other two turned to her, aiming their scorch cannons at her face. She dodged the first blast but the second caught her side and she cried out in pain. Ignoring the blood and stench of burning flesh, she drew her knife and lunged at the Fallen, driving the blade between his neck and shoulder, the force making her go down on top of him. A moment later she felt her Ghost heal her and she stood up. Mithrax was clashing with the other Captain and she drew her hand cannon.

' _Sloat_ ,' she called, using the Eliksni word for prey. The Captain turned to look at the human who spoke his tongue. Continuing in perfect Eliksni, she said, 'This is not your House. This is Mithrax's House.' And she shot the confused Captain in the head.

Mithrax glanced around the battlefield and seemed to decide that the tide had turned in his favour. Sheathing his swords he strode to her, and hesitated as if searching for the right words.  

'I told you weeks ago that females don't fight. That wasn't the truth. Some baronesses fight alongside their barons. First-mates alongside their Captains. I never thought that ... Mer-cee. When I am Kell you will be my mate, for none brings me more honour than you.'

Mercy had been checking for holes in her suit but stopped and look up at him. 'But I'm a Guardian. I have obligations of my own, and you'll have your House back soon. You want to take mates of your own kind, have children.'

He made a dismissive gesture as if these were trivial considerations. 'This is nothing. You will by my first-mate.'

Indignation swept through her. 'Oh, so I'll be just one of your harem? Kept as a little pet, like you said you wanted?'

'No. You will be my ...' he seemed to struggle to get the word out. With a reluctant growl, he said, 'Equal.'

She might have believed him, almost, if it wasn't for the taut way he was standing, the way his eyes flickered as he said _equal._ 'Oh, please. It causes you actual physical pain to say that word.'

Irritation was radiating off him in waves that she was refusing him. As if he felt he was abjecting himself and she should be grateful. 'Please,' he said through grit teeth. It sounded more like a curse than a plea.

'Mithrax, I can't. Actually, I won't.'

His eyes narrowed, dark and possessive. 'No. You will be mine. No one refuses their Kell.'

'You're not my Kell.' She found she was breathing hard. It was always going to have to end between her and Mithrax but she was furious that he'd forced it to a close so soon. Looking around she saw the battle was almost over, and they'd all but won.

Pulling out her Ghost she trans-matted back to orbit. The last thing she saw was Mithrax snatching at the air she had occupied just moments before.  

* * *

It was a quiet few weeks. Too quiet, too dull. No claws pricked her flesh. No teeth sank with sweet pain into her neck. According to the other Guardians she spoke to things seemed to be turning against the false leader of the House of Dusk. Mercy kept out of those battles, preferring to patrol on her own once more.

It was during a patrol on Nessus when it happened. She wasn't concentrating and missed an easy jump across stone plinths. When her Ghost revived her he was looming over her.

Mithrax.

'What are you --' But before she could finish he grabbed her and she felt the familiar lurch of an unwelcome trans-mat. 

'Oh, Traveler's fucking Light!' she snapped, seeing where she was. With him in his empty throne room. She was about to pull out her Ghost and leave when he scooped her bodily up and dumped her on his throne.

His stood over her, chest heaving, anger in every line of his armoured shoulders. ' _Listen_ to me, human-mate.' 

And to her amazement he dropped to his knees before her. 

Mercy sat up in confusion. 'Mithrax?'

With gentle but firm hands he pushed her back in the chair, staying on his knees. _He_ was kneeling to _her_. While she sat in his place. 

With dexterous clawed fingers he began undoing her suit and she watched each piece of her armour fall away. All the longing she'd felt for him these past weeks welled up inside her. 

_I shouldn't._

_Oh Traveler, I'm going to._

She let him strip the gear from her body and peel the tight cloth away from her skin. All the while he crouched before her, keeping his eyes on her body not her face. _Is he keeping his eyes lowered out of respect?_

When she was naked he spread her knees and hooked her legs over her shoulders. Oh, he was going to -- a moan escaped her as he lowered his head and pressed his tongue against her sex. Slippery heat slid against her clit, back and forth, and then he delved lower and pushed the length of his agile tongue inside her. It found her g-spot and rubbed firmly for a moment, before pulling out and lapping like a cat. The forked end of his tongue licked either side of her clit, where the sensations were sweetest, and she took bunches of his cape in her hands and held on tightly. 

Her voice a breathy whisper, she asked, 'Why are you doing this? I don't understand.' Instead of answering he delved deep with his tongue again and all thoughts were lost to her. She watched him, rapt, his savage features engaged in such tender attentions. Her hard, proud Fallen Captain crouching on the ground while she sat upon his throne. 

A hot bead of sensation was building deep inside her, and she began to breathe faster and cry out. Understanding her need, Mithrax focused his attention on her clit, lathing her most sensitive place with long, steady licks of his tongue. Everything tightened up and the world turned golden behind her eyes and she came with a rough cry, her body flexing and her legs tightening around him. 

Finally she came back down, her body going limp. 'Mithrax,' she whispered, stroking her fingers down his face, slow and loving. 

He looked up at her, one clawed hand cradling her cheek. 'I want you, Mer-cee,' he said in his deep, harsh voice. His four eyes were glowing brightly. 'I chase the honour of my House and I will have it, but I have something with you as well. My human-mate. My equal.'

She searched his face but saw no sign of the pain he seemed to feel the last time he'd spoken those words. He straightened and wrapped both sets of arms around her, pulling her close. Their faces were on a level.

'With you I am already Kell.'

She pressed her lips to his jaw, his mandibles, between his eyes. 'Then I am yours, Mithrax, and you are Kell of my House, always.’ 

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

He strode into the Vanguard room as if he’d been there a hundred times before, one clawed right hand resting on his sword hilt and his four glowing eyes sweeping over Zavala, Ikora, Cayde and Variks – and landing on Mercy.

She stood to one side, intending just to listen in on the meeting, and she couldn’t help but feel proud of her lover as she looked at him. He seemed to have broadened in stature these past weeks and she wondered if it was because of the steps he and the Vanguard had been taking to restore him to his rightful place as Kell of the House of Dusk.

Ikora nodded to the Eliskni. ‘Welcome to the Tower, Mithrax. I –‘

But the Eliksni walked past her and round the table to Mercy. He put two hands on her shoulders, bent to press his masked face into the side of her neck and breathed in. ‘Human-mate,’ he murmured in his low, harsh voice. ‘I’ve missed your smell.’

‘Uhh…’ said Cayde on the other side of the table. Over Mithrax’s shoulder Mercy saw the Vanguard looking at her with mingled perplexity and surprise. Variks was examining his staff as if it was suddenly very interesting.

‘Not right now,’ she hissed in Eliksni.

‘It is my kiss. You said kisses in greeting were custom, Mer-cee.’

She had told him that. He’d asked her about human customs the last time they’d laid together after making love, something else she’d taught him and he’d grown to enjoy.

He finished his ‘kiss’ and turned to the table, where he and the Vanguard discussed the next strategy against the House of Dusk, with Variks translating. When they were finished Mithrax bowed deeply to them, then to Mercy, and headed outside.

She went to follow him, to explain why she’d tensed up, but when she was just outside the room she heard Zavala say, ‘What’s that word Mithrax calls Mercy, Variks? I’ve heard him call her that before.’

 _Human-mate_. Mercy’s heart climbed into her throat. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of Mithrax or that she cared what other people would think of her for loving a Fallen. It was the alliance she worried about. What would the Vanguard make of her motives for helping bring this alliance about if they knew about her and Mithrax?

The worst thing was the longer she kept them in the dark the more suspicious it was going to seem. She had to tell them, and soon.

Variks coughed. ‘It is … a greeting among friendssss, yes? Very goooood, close friends.’

‘Really?’ piped up Cayde. ‘We’re good friends, aren’t we? Should I greet you that way, with the neck thing?’

There was a long silence, and then Variks said, ‘You are my good friend from afar, Cayde-6. We will keep thingssss that way, yesss?’

Mercy let out the breath she was holding, and despite everything she grinned to herself. She was going to have to have a quiet word with Variks and plead with him to help her sort this mess out.

But right now all she wanted was to see Mithrax, and she went in search of him. She owed him a kiss of her own.


	4. Chapter 4

‘I’m sorry, but this changes everything.’

Mercy stared into Commander Zavala’s hard, disapproving face, unable to believe what he was saying. Her eyes flickered out beyond the room to where Mithrax stood, waiting to come in and speak to the Vanguard. He looked regal in his purple and gold armour, his helmet under one arm and his swords flashing in the dim light. 

She turned back to Zavala. ‘What difference that it makes that I’m –‘  _In love with him_. ‘That we’re involved? Everything else is just the same. He wants an alliance.’

Ikora folded her arms. ‘Because you weren’t honest with us, Mercy. You let us think that this Fallen approached you. That this was his idea.’

Mercy flinched. For the last two weeks when the Vanguard has spoken about him it had been  _Mithrax_. Now he was just  _the Fallen._

‘In fact, ah, you kind of told us that,’ Cayde added. ‘That this was his idea.’

‘I should have just let you keep thinking that,’ she muttered darkly. What had possessed her to tell the truth?  _Stupid. Idiot._

Zavala’s eyes hardened even further and Mercy decided she’d had enough. She wasn’t going to stand there and be judged by them.

Ikora caught her arm as she went to leave and drew her aside. Speaking in a low voice the Warlock said, ‘I want you to be careful, Mercy. Zavala’s an understanding man but even he has his limits. Guardians have been banished in the past when they’ve put their own desires before what’s good for the City. Fenchurch Everis. Osiris. Think carefully about what’s important to you. You’re a Guardian first, remember that.’

Mercy shrugged out of Ikora’s grasp and strode out.

Mithrax turned to look at her as she came toward him. ‘Mer-cee, I –’

She slipped her hand into one of his and squeezed it, smiling through her stiff face. ‘Not today, Mithrax. The Vanguard are busy and –’ A stupid lump formed in her throat and she swallowed it down. Screw all of them, the prissy bastards. Wasn’t it obvious why she’d massaged the truth a bit? They would have given her cold, suspicious stares if she’d told them what really happened between her and Mithrax. It was too strange, too hard to explain, and too precious to her to cast before their pejorative stares.

She could feel their eyes upon her even now but she didn’t care. This didn’t change her feelings about Mithrax. Her first-mate. Not able to wait any longer she went up on her toes and pressed a kiss to his mandibles.

‘Get me out of here, will you?’ she whispered.

‘Of course, Mer-cee. Anywhere you want to go.’

_You’re a Guardian first._

Not today she wasn’t. She wanted to get as far away from here as possible. Her eyes burned and she managed in a tight whisper, ‘Thank you.’


	5. Chapter 5

“It is the traitor,” Mithrax growled. 

Variks looked up into the cold, narrowed eyes of the larger Eliksni, and took a tighter grip on his staff. Betraying Skolas to the Queen made him trustworthy in human eyes but despicable to other Eliksni. With utmost politeness, he bowed and said, “It is Variks, the Loyal, and I welcome you to the Reef.”

The Captain sneered and looked away, and Variks considered leaving him to sort out the ruin that had become of his attempted alliance with the City on his own. But Mercy had begged him to help her and Mithrax. He liked Mercy. She spoke in perfect Eliksni and conversing in his own tongue was something he dearly missed. 

Besides, there was something Mithrax had that Variks dearly wanted for himself.

“You are lucky in your first-mate, Kell. She does you honour,” Variks said, and the title and the mention of Mercy seemed to make Mithrax unclench a little. He was a proud one, this Captain. 

“She tells me you wish for my help in securing an alliance with the City. That negotiations have stalled.”

“What do you want in return?”

Proud, and astute. Drawing himself up a little, Variks said, “There is a human I am fond of. I want to know how you and Mercy … found your feelings for each other.”

Mithrax grasped the hilts of his swords and rounded on the Vandal. “Dare ask me that again, worm, and I will dock your arms.”

“Not like that,” Variks said quickly. “I don’t wish to pry. I wish only to know how I may approach a human. There is one you see …” But he trailed off, seeing how little the Captain cared for what he was saying. 

“She has such hair.” Variks made a gesture with his hand, and let it fall back to his side, defeated.

Mithrax watched him silently for a moment. “Mer-cee has such hair too.”

“What is it like?” Variks asked eagerly.

“It gets snagged on my claws.”

“Oh.”

They fell into silence, and Mithrax looked about the Reef, clearly wishing for Mercy to return to them so they could be gone. 

Then he spoke softly. "But it is soft also, and it lays across her skin and mine when we are together. If I am careful I can stroke it and it doesn’t snag.“

Variks breathed a heavy sigh, imagining such a thing.

"You love this human, traitor.”

Variks didn’t even mind the insult. “She comes to the Reef to fight in the Prison. She stays to talk to me and takes her helmet off. Her hair … Her smiles … I want to tell her how I feel.”

Mithrax looked him over critically. "Your rank is low and your House is insignificant.”

“Humans do not think the way our kind do.”

The Captain laughed, a deep low sound, and Variks looked up in surprise. “You are right, Variks, my Mer-cee can be very strange sometimes.”

“But you love her anyway.”

The laughter stopped. “She has spoken to me of this ‘love’. I … am considering it’s worth.”

Variks saw that his eyes were glowing more brightly and he was standing straighter. Yes, the proud Captain was certainly considering it. “Will you tell me how you won her? What words, what gifts does she like? Did she ever fear to look upon your face?”

“I will tell you what I know. In exchange I will have your assistance with the Vanguard. They do not trust me.“

The promise fell easily from Variks’ mouth. "I can talk to them, and you will have your alliance. Now, tell me how you did it. I’m afraid that if I speak my feelings or reveal my face she will tell me I am a monster.”

Mithrax made a dismissive gesture. “You have been around humans too long. Are you a Vandal or a mewling Dreg? Speak up, coward. Reveal your face, speak your mind. Where is your pride? Who is more handsome than the Eliksni? Who is stronger? Cleverer?”

“So you never doubted that Mercy has feelings for you?”

Mithrax gazed around the Reef, straight-backed, chin high. “My Mer-cee wants me, in her mind and her heart. There is no doubt.”

He was arrogant and cold, but his confidence was inspiring. Variks  _was_  Eliksni, and Eliksni were no cowards. He bowed his head, hope blooming in his chest. “I will speak to her. I thank you, Kell.”

Mercy came across the Reef toward therm. “There you two are. Been having a nice talk?”

Mithrax spoke without preamble. “Variks loves a human. You should let her know what to expect from Eliksni mating.”

Mercy looked between her first-mate and Variks, wide-eyed with surprise. Then she smothered it and said, “Oh, Variks, I had no idea.”

Variks coughed apologetically. “Ah, yes. I didn’t mean for the Kell to say – but ah, perhaps you could speak to her – about my  _feelings_ , not about …” he trailed off, at a loss.

She smiled at him and put a hand on his arm. “Of course I can speak to her, but perhaps most of what is said should come from you? What is her name?”

“She is Juyon, one who stalks by night.”

“Ah, a Hunter, excellent choice. I shall bring her to you.” Then she turned to her first-mate. “Now listen, you, what did I tell you about tact?”

“That it is lies for ordinary people to make friendships work.”

She scrubbed her hands over her face. “By the Traveler you are stubborn. You’re not Kell yet, you know. You’re as ordinary as Variks and I.”

“You call me Kell.”

She smiled at him and went up on her toes to kiss his jaw. “Yes, I do, my Kell.”

Mithrax gazed down at her, then lifted one large clawed hand and trailed the backs of his fingers over her hair, careful not to snag it with his claws. 

Variks watched, trying not to feel forlorn at seeing their affection for one another. But he must have hope. Mercy was going to speak to Juyon about him, and he would see her soon. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From a Dawning series I wrote for all my OCs with a snow theme xx

Mercy stepped out of the ketch and caught her breath. “Snow!” It lay over the EDZ like a thick blanket, shrouding the trees and turning the day a brilliant jewelled white. 

Mithrax marched down beside her, giving the landscape a cursory glance, and then directing his men to their patrols. A handful of dregs were eyeing the snow suspiciously as if it might attack them. 

“My love, don’t you think it’s beautiful?” she asked, reaching up to touch the crystals clinging to a fine tree branch. 

“Last week it rained and you did not ask me to admire the wet ground.”

“Yes, but the snow is …” She trailed off as Mithrax turned away. Anger and frustration balled in her chest, and the pointlessness of getting upset over the fact that he didn’t care about the snow made it double.  _It’s just fucking snow, pull yourself together._

But it wasn’t just the snow.  _How much do I just love him for who he is, and how much do I ask him to change? Do I just accept that he will never love me, not like one of my own could, and does that even matter?_

When she looked up she found he was looking at her, his four bright eyes fixed on her face, and they were alone. “You are sad.”

A barb about him being so clever, well done, he’s identified a human emotion, sat sourly on her tongue. Instead she said nothing. 

Mithrax looked around again at the snow with hard, searching eyes, as if trying to see what she saw. Then he growled in frustration. ‘Mer-cee. You push me so hard into unknown places. Your customs are not mine.”

Her heart thumping painfully, fearfully. What was he saying? “It’s just snow. I thought it was pretty. Forget it.”

“Everything in my life has to have a purpose. I have lost so much and there is so much to be done.”  His claws bunched at his side. There was anxiety in his voice now, a note she’d never heard before. “You are like the snow. I don’t understand you and you need things I have never thought about before.”

“I don’t need anything. It’s fine.”

“Mer-cee,” he said softly, trailing the backs of his claws down her hair. “This snow will be gone tomorrow, in a few hours. That is why it is precious, yes?”

She looking around at the frozen landscape. He was right. The impermanence and the rarity, that was made it as beloved as its beauty. 

“It is not my words, or my tradition, but there are things that I feel because of you.” He took a deep breath, the expired ether fogging the air. “You have said that you loved me.”

When she’d explained romantic love and why she wanted to call him  _my love_ she’d assumed he’d never thought about it again. “There’s no need to pretend anything for me. I don’t want that.”

Delicately, he used the tip of one claw to remove a snowflake from her hair.  “I don’t want you to melt away, my love. There is no pretending in that.”

Mercy searched his face, so difficult to read when she could only see his eyes. But there was gentle honesty in their depths, in his voice. 

“Mer-cee. Will you tell me about the snow?”

She took one of his large hands and they walked together through the frozen stillness, for the moment without a purpose, with just each other, and the snow. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fluffy prompts: “Mm. Your kid before five in the morning.”

 

The sad chittering noises coming through the door of his quarters woke Mercy and Mithrax before the sun was up. Both of them pretended not to have heard it, but it didn’t stop.

“Mer-cee. The stray.” Mithrax’s voice was a sleepy rumble in her ear. Several days ago they’d found an injured, stranded dreg in the EDZ wearing House of Dusk colours, the House that Mithrax had once led and was now at war with. 

He’d wanted to ignore it or kill it because it was too weak to fight, but Mercy had taken pity on the poor frightened thing and insisted they take it back to Mithrax’s ketch. He’d been outraged, spluttering about spies and enemy forces, but she’d simply held the dreg’s claw and waited for her mate to run out of steam. It was merely a dreg, and if they left it out in the open it would die. 

The little soldier was proving more trouble than its worth, crying outside their door every morning no matter what she said to it. 

Mithrax prodded her. “Mer-cee. The stray.”

She burrowed deeper into the blankets. “Mmph. It’s your stray before five in the morning. And it doesn’t want me, it wants its Kell.”

Mithrax growled softly, but with a note of resignation. A moment later he heaved himself out of bed and she heard him talking to dreg out in the corridor. 

“You are House of Dusk–true House of Dusk. Prove yourself to your commanders and you will bring honour to this House.”

The little dreg replied, but she couldn’t make out the words.

“My human-mate? Yes, a good female. One of your own? Hm. One day. But you must grow large and strong. These human-mates like big, strong captains, not crying dregs. Good. Off you go, and no more of this.”

Mercy smiled into the pillow and felt Mithrax slip back into bed beside her, his jaws by her ear as he said, “Soon all my men will be fighting in your name instead of mine, human-mate.” 

She wriggled closer to him. He buried his face in the back of her neck, breathed in deeply, and they fell sleep again. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two Ghost shell recording drabbles from my Tumblr, one sweet, one saucy xxx

**_GHOST SHELL RECORDING // FALLEN KETCH // EDZ_ **

“Mithrax.”

“Mm.”

“Will you tell me a story. From your own world.”

“A story.”

“Yes. Something make-believe that your people tell each other, for laughter or sadness or comfort.”

“In a place far away but very near, a Kell lost his House, his men and his pride. He thought he would die. He watched his men perish, one by one, those who’d been foolish enough not to turn away from him. One day he fought an enemy who showed him mercy, who struck down his enemy and let him live. And he thought, she will be my Mercy, and she will bring me great honour. And she did.”

“That’s beautiful. But I meant one about something from your world. From before.”

“This is my world, Mer-cee. All of it is here, and there is no before for me. Only this and what comes after.”

* * *

 

**_GHOST SHELL RECORDING // FALLEN KETCH // EDZ_ **

“Mithrax. Are you…? Okay. Wow.”

“Mer-cee?”

“Are you getting bigger?”

_[Pleased growling]_

“Your feet are hanging of the sleeping platform. And you’re like…bigger.  _All over_.”

“Yes, Mer-cee. When I lost my House I starved myself of ether and grew smaller.”

“And now?”

“I am gaining it back. My House is growing so I must grow, too.”

“Jesus. How…big?”

“Kell-sized.”

“Wow. Okay. You realise I won’t get any bigger. None of me. Humans don’t work that way.”

“Oh, yes, Mer-cee. I know.”

_[Silence]_

“I can hear that goddamn purr in your voice and you can just cut that out right now.”

“Don’t worry, Mer-cee. It won’t happen all at once. You’ll have time to get used to me.”

* * *

_She'll give it a red hot go Mithrax I assure you ;)_

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fluff prompt I got on Tumblr for a Fallen Captain meeting a small child for the first time. 
> 
> This wee drabble features Arlise, Commander Zavala’s child from The Red Eves (see my Zavala x Reader collection if you want the whole story) meeting Mithrax the Forsaken in the Tower. They can exist in the same universe for a bit for the sake of a cute story!

The little girl clung to her father’s Mark tightly with one hand and stared up at the enormous, armoured alien with big, shining eyes.

Mithrax looked back at her, stiff and unsure. A whelp at a military meeting. Strange.

Zavala noticed the pulling on his Mark and hunkered down beside his daughter. “This is Mithrax, Arlise. He’s a friend. Would you like to say hello?”

Emboldened by her father’s words, she put up a chubby hand and waved at the Eliksni Kell. Slowly, haltingly, Mithrax raised one of his clawed hands and shook it in the air. Delighted, Arlise toddled forward until she was standing in front of Mithrax and raised both her arms.

Mithrax reared back, startled, and turned to Mercy. “Human-mate, why is it signalling an attack?”

Mercy remembered how the Eliksni held their weapons above their heads in a show of aggression. “She’s not attacking, she’s asking you to pick her up. Do you not pick up your own offspring?”

“Eliksni offspring do not need to be picked up. From within an hour of their hatching their arms are strong enough to climb. An Eliksni who stands still too long in the whelp-den is swarmed.”

Mercy had a mental image of Mithrax standing proudly in his armour and cloak while baby Fallen swarmed up him like ants, and she couldn’t help but smile.

He went on, “We have a saying for those who are lazy on the battlefield.  _One to whom it is easy to cling_.” Mithrax looked again at Arlise. “Will you ask your Kell if I may accept his whelp’s entreaty?”

“Commander. Not Kell.” She turned to Zavala and repeated Mithrax’s question. The commander smiled and nodded, folding his arms and leaning against the Vanguard table to watch.

Mithrax leaned slowly down from his great height and picked Arlise up carefully in his large, clawed hands, and straightened, holding her out before him. He didn’t seem sure what to do with her after that, but a moment later settled the child in the crook of one of his lower arms.  

Arlise grabbed fistfuls of the fur on his collar, and he nodded wisely. “Ah. She has good instincts even if her arms are weak. Is this what you looked like as a whelp, Mer-cee?” A purr rumbled deep in his chest, something she’d noticed he did when he was particularly pleased or happy. Or maybe it was something all Eliksni did when their whelps clambered over them.

“I don’t know. I assume so.”

Her turned toward her, hearing the edge to her voice. “Ah. Of course. Sometimes I forget that you were born already grown. Is this why you don’t like children? Because a whelp is like another species to you?”

Her mouth twisted as she watched Arlise splay a hand over Mithrax’s helm, patting the bright gold metal. “Yeah, I guess. I don’t know.”

“I am another species.”

She grinned up at him. “No kidding, big guy.”

“There will be whelps aboard my Ketch very soon. I have given the mating orders.”

Mercy felt herself stiffen. It had to happened eventually, she knew. Mithrax’s House had been focused on fighting and hadn’t had the resources for breeding, but now they were establishing more territory in the EDZ. Even though she couldn’t give him what he needed and wasn’t even sure she wanted to, she felt a lurch of jealousy. “You’re mating?”

“No. My captains are.”

Mercy started breathing again. “Oh. That’s good. For them.” She glanced up at Mithrax again, who was offering a clawed finger to Arlise. “We can’t have our own children even if we wanted to. I’m sorry about that.”

He leaned down and pressed his helm against the back of her neck, nuzzling the place he liked best. “Mer-cee. All the offspring on my Ketch are my children. They are all my captains’ children. And they are all your children. We share, for the good of the House. You will have much to teach them.”

 _Her_ children? He’d never said that before. “Much to teach them? Like what?”

Arlise tugged sharply on one of the spines on his helm, but he didn’t seem to mind. “These whelps will grow up to fight side-by-side with human brothers and sisters. They will look to you, their Kell’s first-mate, to teach them about human ways.”

Mercy bit her lip. Look to her to teach them human ways. As some sort of role model? That sounded like a lot of responsibility. “What if I, I don’t know, teach them the wrong thing by accident?”

Mithrax handed Arlise back to her father and the commander held her with one arm against his hip while he called the meeting to order. “You will not. You will be an excellent example to them.”

But that also meant being motherly, didn’t it?  _One to whom it is easy to cling._ Mercy wasn’t so sure that sounded like her. She’d never been much good at standing still.

* * *

_Thank you for reading! xx_

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fallen Captain x female Reef Awoken | smut with plot | angst and drama | major character death (offstage) | NSFW
> 
> During the civil war tearing the House of Wolves apart, a Reefborn Awoken meets an Eliksni bounty hunter with no house loyalty 
> 
> This is a standalone story featuring my OC Mercy from Mithrax the Forsaken Has No House in her first life as an Awoken born in the Reef. 
> 
> A word on pronounciation: you can say it however you like, but in my head Akigras is a-KEE-grah. Meirsi is pronounced Mercy.

The Gamma was just beginning to liven up with post-third shift drinkers as Meirsila stalked in, still in her greasy overalls. Like most places on the dark side of the Reef there were no portals and the owner didn’t like to waste money on much lighting. The Gamma was dim and dodgy, exactly how she liked it.

“Hit me,” she said to the bartender, slapping her palm down on the bar. There was no need to say what she wanted. The Gamma only served two drinks and one of them would make her violently sick. It was for Eliksni.

“Meirsi, at least wash your hands after you get off shift.”

She turned and saw Arec, one of the senior maintenance workers from the second shift. He had close-cropped silver-white hair and was grinning a pointed smile at her. Glancing at her fingers she saw they were grimy and she still had grease under her nails. As if anyone really cared here. “This twenty-hour can go fuck itself,” she said into her drink and took a gulp.

Arec signalled for his own drink and toasted her. “Yeah?”

“I had to wait around half my shift to get into the vents over at twenty-nine because the engineers forgot to turn the power off. Then I dropped my jack on my damn foot.” The jacks were wrenches as long as her arm and they were _heavy_.

He looked at her, head on one side. “What’s really bothering you?”

Oh, blast Mr Perceptive. They didn’t know each other particularly well but Arec seemed always know what she was thinking. “You know what. Those on the sunward side don’t care about us here on the dark side of the Reef.” Over here it was crowded and there was always a waiting list for the things they needed. Sector thirty-seven still didn’t have clean air. Her sister and baby niece were in thirty-seven.

Arec nodded slowly. “Yeah, it’s true, but don’t say that too loud. Not even here.”

The crows might be listening, he meant. Uldren’s little spies. She turned to him, gripping her bottle. “You know what gets me? They won’t even let me have her and the baby in my quarters because there’s a crowding issue. Said I’d swap but they won’t process it. Bureaucracy. It can bite me.”

Arec looked at her with sympathy didn’t say anything, and she waved a dismissive hand. “Leave me alone. I’m terrible company tonight.”

He clapped her on the shoulder and turned away to join his friends. “Don’t get drunk or you’ll feel worse tomorrow.”

Meirsi downed the rest of her drink in one long gulp. “Yeah, yeah.”

Once she’d ordered a second she took it into the corner where she could enjoy it in silence and keep an eye on everyone in the Gamma. She liked sitting and watching. It calmed her down, as long as nobody tried to talk to her. She put her feet up on the spare seat just in case.

As she was casting her eyes around the darkened room a figure entered the bar. Large, and moving indistinctly in the dim light. They were half the height of a man again and dressed all in black. A small amount of light glinted off an armoured breather mask. An Eliksni.

Meirsi took an absent-minded swig from her drink, her eyes never leaving the captain. She searched for the telltale House of Wolves insignia but he bore no markings and besides, they wore dark blue. Who was this, a loner? A mercenary?

Her gaze followed him as he prowled to the bar, unhurried, and graceful despite his enormous bulk. His biosuit hugged his body and a black cloak with tatty ends hung from his huge shoulders. There were ornate hand cannons at his narrow hips and a knife as long as her arm strapped to his thigh.

As if knowing she was staring, his armoured head turned slowly to look at her. Meirsi felt her face tingle and knew that the coronas of light on her skin had begun to swirl faster, but she didn’t look away. Yes, she’d been caught staring, but she couldn’t be stared down. The Eliskni tightened his hand on his drink and made to move toward her, but she noticed something glint just over his shoulder.

A knife.

She was onto her feet and launching herself through the air before she had time to think. Realizing she still held her drink in her hand she smashed the glass bottle into the attacker’s head and they both went down. _The knife. Disarm him._ She and the Awoken man both scrabbled for the weapon which had fallen to the floor, but she managed to snatch it up. Finding herself astride the attacker she pressed her knees into his shoulders and the blade against his throat.

“Want to explain what you’re doing?” she growled. There were often brawls in Gamma but a knife, and against an Eliksni? That was too much. Things were difficult enough between the Awoken and the Eliksni without public murder.

The man beneath her was purple with rage. “Go fuck yourself.” And he spat in her face.

She reeled back in surprise, swiping her face with her upper arm. Anger burned through her and she flipped the knife and slammed the hilt beneath his chin, making his jaw click together and knocking him out.

Over her head, she heard a deep, guttural laugh. The Eliksni was leaning against the bar, holding his drink and watching her.

Meirsi got to her feet. “Didn’t want to give me a hand or four while I was saving your life?”

He bowed deeply, spreading all his arms. For such a big creature he moved regally. “I am in your debt, _et-sha_. Is there someone you wish me to kill?”

“Uh, no? Why did he want to hurt you?”

The Eliksni examined the Awoken man’s face. “Because I killed his brother. Or was it his father? The _et-kan_ are so difficult to tell apart for my kind.” His four glowing eyes roamed over her face, her long blue hair tied tightly at the back of her neck, the knife still clutched in her hand. “I would remember you, though. Come and drink with me.”

Her heart started to pound. “I don’t drink with assassins.”

“Mercenary," he corrected. "Akigras, the Grasping, and I am in your debt, _et-sha_.”

He was only saying _Awoken female_ when he said _et-sha_ but from his mouth it sounded like a caress and a warning at the same time.

Two months ago she and some friends had fallen into a club around the end of the fourth shift, a place where Eliksni and humans danced together for money. In the basement you could watch them have sex. The others had been titillated, a spectacle for their amusement.

Meirsi had watched a petite Awoken woman being screwed by two enormous Eliksni at the same time, one fucking her pussy and the other taking her anally while they stroked their second cocks. Positioned on her hands and knees, the woman had sucked a third Eliksni, carefully, thoroughly, looking very much like she was enjoying herself. When the Eliksni all came they striped her naked body with blue-grey come that glistened darkly in the red lights of the club.

She’d left with a dry mouth and a pounding heart. Pounding in other places, too. The others had found her silence weird until she’d forced a laugh and pretended it had been funny and gross as well.

Akigras was still watching her with speculative yellow eyes. Beside her the unconscious man was beginning to stir.

She threw the man’s knife next to him and backed away. “I’m good. Thanks.”

A guttural voice called after her as she hurried out of Gamma. “I am still in your debt, _et-sha_.”

* * *

“That Eliksni’s been asking around about you.”

Meirsi dropped the wrench she was cleaning. She was down in the maintenance bay sorting through her mucky toolbox at the end of a shift and her mind had been straying, she realised, to the black-clad Akigras.

“What Eliksni?” she prevaricated, not turning around. She recognised Arec from the sound of his voice.

“You know. That mean-looking bastard in Gamma the other night. The one you leapt to defend. He didn’t need your help, you know.”

She’d realized that herself as she’d walked back to her quarters. An Eliksni that size would have been able to handle one man with a knife. “What’s he asking?”

“He’s looking to repay his debt to you. You know Eliksni and their debts.”

Meirsi picked up the wrench and threw it into her toolbox. “I don’t want anything from an assassin.”

“He’s not an assassin. He takes bounties on criminals wanted by the Queen. Sometimes she doesn’t mind if they’re brought in dead. It’s perfectly legal.”

“You know a lot about him,” she snapped, trying to cover the fact that her heart was racing lightly.

“Yeah. Well. We were together for a while.”

She turned and stared at Arec. Together? Like, lovers together? How did she not know about this? “You called him a mean-looking bastard.”

Arec looked embarrassed and nostalgic all at once. “He is. But he’s also… Well, you saw him.”

Intimidating. Magnetic. Impressive as fuck. _Akigras takes Awoken lovers._ It wasn’t unheard of, but it was rare. Both Awoken and Eliksni saw each other as tentative allies, but as something beneath them. Sex between them was treated as a vulgar joke.

The silence stretch a little too long, and Arec’s face closed. “Look, if you’re going to be like that—”

“No, no,” she said quickly. “I’m not like that. I’m interested. What happened?”

Her co-worker shrugged. “I gave him up. I didn’t want to, but I got attached to him and he’d made his expectations very clear. Sex, friendship. Nothing more. He’s in and out of port. Doesn’t like to think of anyone else while he’s hunting.”

“Sounds kind of cold.”

“It wasn’t. I don’t think there was anyone else for him while we were seeing each other. He wanted me to make myself available to him while he was in the Reef. Other than that I could do as I please. While he was offshore I could see other people or Eliksni if I wanted to.”

“Did you?”

Arec half-smiled, lost in remembrance. “No. I only wanted him.”

For a split second Meirsi felt something bright and hot fizzle through her. Akigras was seeking _her_ out now. Then reality broke over her. He was a killer with a weird sense of honour, that’s all. “What is he—”

She broke off as a large figure loomed in the doorway. A very large figure, all dressed in black.

Akigras.

He had a heavy-looking box in his arms. When he saw her he strode forward and placed the box at her feet. “CO2 scrubbers. For sector thirty-seven.”

How did he…? She glanced at Arec who looked away quickly, but she thought she saw a smirk. The Awoken man waved and quickly left the room.

Scrubbers. Something she actually needed. Despite herself, she was touched. Akigras came forward and to her surprise got down on one knee, reaching for her hand.

“Is the debt repaid, _et-sha_? You must tell me if there is anything else I can do.”

She watched his dark claws rub over her fingers, each one thicker than two of hers. His touch was gentle. A bounty hunter, not an assassin. It was still something dangerous, something questionable, but it seemed he could be kind, too. “It’s more than enough. Thank you, I mean it.”

He watched her from where he was for a moment, then slowly stood, releasing her. “What is it you do here?”

“Maintenance. Vents, pipes.” _Ask me for that drink. I think I might say yes._

“It is hard work, _et-sha_?”

“It’s, ah, tiring sometimes.” She smoothed her fingers up the side of her neck, angling her head as she did so that he would see the bare skin at the nape of her neck, full well knowing that baring the neck to an Eliksni was a sex thing. A come on, a mating ritual? She couldn’t remember, and she wasn’t thinking very hard.

When she flicked her eyes up at him through her lashes, half daring, half afraid, she saw his gaze travel up from the side of her neck to her face.

“What is your name, _et-sha_?”

“Meirsila. Meirsi.”

“Meirsi.” He said the name slowly. Thoroughly. Leaving no syllable untasted. He reached out and the tip of his claw snicked against the zipper of her overalls. He pushed his claw through the loop and drew it down slowly, very slowly, the teeth parting one by one, his eyes not leaving her face. She began to breathe hard as her grimy work clothes separated to reveal a her breasts in a well-washed bra. The zipper was down to her navel and two of Akigras’ other hands pushed the overalls from her shoulders. Everything was happening so very slowly, giving her ample time to tell him to stop, to call out for help if she needed it.

Meirsi reached up without looking and slammed the side of her fist into the emergency door seal. The door closed with a hiss. Behind his armoured breather Akigras made a purring, growling sound, and while still undressing her he reached up and took off his helm. The Eliksni in the sex club had had bare faces and their sharp teeth and strong mandibles had attracted rather than horrified her. Akigras’ exoskeleton was as glossy as a nut and she reach up to draw shaking fingers along his jaw. He felt cool to the touch, and hard as a nut, too.

“I guess no kissing, huh?” she whispered, eyeing his teeth.

Instead of answering he pushed her overalls down to her knees and hoisted her up onto the work bench. Her arms went around his neck in surprise and she held onto him. But not for long. He knelt again, and after pulling off her boots and her bunched up overalls he placed the soles of her feet on his broad shoulders, her knees spread open before him.

 _Oh by the stars and the planets, what is happening._ She braced one hand against the cabinets and stared down at him, her heart pounding.

The Eliksni nuzzled against her sex through her underwear. She could feel his hot breath against her most sensitive parts.

“I like the way you smell, _et-sha_.” The tip of a thick, blue-grey and slightly forked tongue flicked against her, and then again, harder this time. Carefully, with his teeth, he took hold of the waistband of her underwear and pulled. The thin fabric rent, and he continued to bite and pull until the flimsy garment was in tatters.

With his upper claws he stroked her inner thighs, taking his time, examining her, all those teeth and claws closest to her most sensitive parts. His tongue flicked out again, tentative at first, then bolder, pushing though her folds to get to her clit. He didn’t even need to go searching. He knew exactly where it was, where it felt best and his smooth, wet tongue rubbed and licked with just the right friction. She moaned loudly, her toes curling against the fur collar of his cloak.

Pulling her closer with his other set of claws, he delved deeper with his tongue, pushing its thickness inside her and flexing it with surprising strength. He fucked her slowly, carefully, wary of getting his sharp teeth too close to her. He was delicate as he was large, and she watched him though the pink haze of her arousal.

Akigras pulled his tongue out and turned his head to her thigh and took it in his jaws. Her whole leg fit inside his mouth. Carefully, he bit down, not hard enough to break the skin but enough that she felt the needle pinprick of all his teeth. He leg go and looked up at her, his four eyes very bright. “May I bite harder, _et-sha_? I wish to leave you some marks.”

Mutely, she nodded. He made a noise deep in his throat and took her thigh lovingly between his jaws again. He bit down, and then a little deeper, and slowly pulled, dragging her skin against his teeth. She hissed in pain, feeling the rasp of a hundred tiny teeth. His bite wasn’t so deep she was bleeding freely, just enough that there were angry red scratches on her otherwise unmarred skin. He let go and licked his long tongue slowly along the marks, tasting the blood.

“ _Et-sha_ , you are delicious.” His tongue returned to her pussy and she forgot the stinging in her thigh as he pushed inside her again, deeper this time, faster, focusing the strength of his tongue on the place that felt best. She reached down with her free hand, the one that wasn’t braced against the cabinets, and rubbed tight little circles on her clit, just enough to get her over the edge. She knew that once she was there he would keep the feeling going, on and on, if he kept up the movements of his tongue. He watched her fingers, interested in what she was doing, and with a loud cry she came. As her muscles clenched against him he pushed her legs wider, forced his tongue deeper, the strong rhythmic movements making her orgasm grow even as her hand fell her way. Her eyes closed and her head tipped back as she was gripped by a powerful climax. 

When her orgasm released her she gasped a quick breath before the next one was upon her, deeper this time, going on and on while all she was aware of was the thick muscle of his tongue thrusting into her.

Finally her orgasm released her and she brought her head forward and drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Akigras was on his feet, his four arms around her, pressing his face into the side of her neck. She clung to him tightly as she came back into herself, feeling the roughness of his clothes against her naked body.

A moment later he helped her down, and as she pulled her overalls back on and stuffed the tatters of her underwear into her pocket he refastened his breather mask.

“Is that a debt, ah, paid, then?” she asked, looking shyly up at him.

He laughed softly. “The scrubbers were for the debt. The tongue was because you wanted it so badly. I’ll be back in four days, _et-sha_. May the unknown star light your way.”

* * *

_Meirsi,_

_I will be docked at bay twelve from fifth hour tomorrow. I would like to show you something._

_Akigras_

She closed her datapad and glanced at the time. She’d worked a double shift yesterday and gone straight to bed without checking her messages. It was sixth hour now, and her day off.

_I would like to show you something._

Well. She wasn’t really doing anything, and Akigras was there, waiting. Dressing in some clean black utility pants and a white tank she headed out, grabbing a jacket as she went out as the docks could get cold.

He was standing in the bay talking to a handful of Awoken and when he spotted her he nodded a quick goodbye and started toward her. Her breath caught at the sight of him, large, heavily armoured, eyes lit with a brighter, colder light than most Awoken. But his voice was a gentle purr when he spoke.

“Meirsi. You came.”

She smiled up at him, not sure what to say, but very pleased to see him.

He took her aboard his ship and explained he was going to pilot them to the sunward side of the Reef and through the asteroid field. It was a larger vessel than most single-person craft and he explained that it was because he spent a lot of his time aboard the ship, when he wasn’t docked at the Reef or an Eliksni ketch. “And I need a brig. For the bounties that are brought in alive.”

Meirsi didn’t want to ask where he put the ones that were dead.

Once they were through the asteroid field he cut the engines and took her up to a viewing platform. As the shutters pulled back she saw the swell of Jupiter and the distant red pinprick of Mars against a field of stars.

Akigras pointed to the brightest star in the vista. “There. It is your homeworld star. A maintenance worker from sector twenty-eight probably doesn’t get this chance very often.”

She stepped forward and pressed her hands against the cold glass. The sun was burning bright and clear, casting it’s feeble light over them. “Very often?” she said softly, trying not to fog the glass. “I’ve never seen it so clearly.” There were always things to do when she was sunside and besides, there was the asteroid field.

He stood quietly behind her, just looking with her. “Have you ever visited your homeworld, Meirsi?”

She shook her head. “It’s not my homeworld. I’m Awoken. We were born out here on the edges of the system. The Reef is my homeworld.”

“I was born on a colony ship out past Pluto. That doesn’t make that colony ship my homeworld.”

Meirsi turned round and looked up at him. It was difficult to tell what he was thinking in that armoured mask. It would be difficult to tell even if he wasn’t wearing it.

He nodded toward the sun. “I would like for you to see it one day. A real homeworld. Not a graveyard.”

She grinned. “Hey, that’s my home you’re talking about.” But Akigras wasn’t laughing. Did he really dislike the Reef so much? She turned and looked back at the sun, trying to see the planet that her ancestors had called home. “Have you seen it? Earth?”

“I flew close, once. It’s too dangerous for my kind for a casual visit. There are dark, ruined places. Lifeless places. But continents of green and desert, too. Vast blue oceans. It is broken, but it is not dead.”

He didn’t mentioned the Traveler so neither did she, but they both knew it was the reason his kind had travelled to this system. She glanced over her shoulder at his black attire, bearing the symbols of no House. “What about your homeworld? Do you ever fly out to the edges of this system to look for its light?”

Akigras put both his hands on her shoulders and turned her towards him. “I keep my back to it. It is easy when it barely shines in the night sky. I have the light from this unknown star to guide my way.”

She reached up, and with fumbling fingers unfastened his breather mask. Once he’d laid it aside she reached up to touch his face.

“Can I kiss you? It’s what my kind do, and it feels strange to be so close to you without kissing.”

“Of course,” he said, and he lowered his head so she could press soft kisses to his jaw, the plates beneath his eyes, the fleshier parts down the sides of his neck. When she kissed his throat he purred, the sound vibrating even through his armour.

“Is there anything,” she whispered between kisses, “that your kind do when you’re together?”

In answer he pulled her closer and clamped his jaws on the back of her neck, gently, just enough for her to feel the prick of his teeth and his hot breath. “You smell good there, too, Meirsi.” He released her and licked the spot slowly. “Do you want me, properly this time? Or just my tongue?”

It was all she’d thought about since he’d left the maintenance bay, going to bed with Akigras. She’d never been so preoccupied by the thought of an Awoken though she’d had several lovers and they’d all been satisfying. More or less. But Akigras…just being close to him made her heart pound. “I want all of you.”

He looked at her steadily. “Do you know what to expect from me?”

Two phalluses, he meant. She nodded. It was daunting, and strange, but she was sure she wanted to try. He took her over to a pile of sleeping furs in the corner and they undressed each other slowly. When her thighs were bare he stoked the fading teeth marks, making a pleased noise in the back of his throat. She wondered if they’d been a sort of test, to find out if there was anyone in her life who would remark upon Eliksni bite marks on her inner thigh. If she’d refused the bites, perhaps he wouldn’t have invited her aboard his ship.  

When they were both naked she sank down to her knees before him. She’d wanted to try this ever since she’d seen the girl do it in the sex club. But his phalluses were still behind plates of some sort, and it wasn’t until he took her hand and showed her how to stroke him they emerged, thicker and longer than she was used to, and knobbly rather than smooth. He hissed with pleasure as she took the tip of his top phallus into her mouth. He tasted slightly musky, a pleasant taste, and she drew him deeper into her mouth as she rubbed the other up and down with her hand.

Pausing, she looked up at him. “This is how my kind do it. Is it all right for you? I don’t know how you…”

He laughed, a deep, dark chuckle. “My kind do not do this. Too many teeth. I very much like this custom of yours.”

She took his lower phallus, thicker and longer than the other, in her mouth and he growled softly, combing his claws gently though her hair. He found the fastening at the base of her neck and cut it free, and her hair spilled down her back.

“So pretty, _et-sha_. The beautiful blue of your eyes.” He hummed his appreciation as she pushed him right to the back of her throat. “Lay down now. I want to look at you.”

Meirsi did as she was asked and he knelt between her thighs. He spread her out beneath him, drinking in the sight of her naked body, his four arms trailing over her skin. The light from her coronas gleamed on his exoskeleton, painting patterns on his belly.

Drawing a knuckle over her pussy he found that she was wet. He took his lower phallus in one clawed hand and ran the tip over her sex, watched as she breathed faster in anticipation. He pressed forward slowly, sinking into her, his eyes on her face. She felt the knobbly surface of his cock slide against her tight inner flesh and it was strange, but not unpleasant. He was so thick, but he was slow about fucking her, seeming to know how much she could take, then drawing back, and pushing a little deeper.

“You feel good, _et-sha_ ,” he growled, bracing his upper claws by her head as he hunched over her. His lower claws stroked her clit, making her pant beneath his touch.

She noticed his other phallus had begun dripping a thick, clear fluid, and that it was slippery to the touch. “Just one?” she whispered. “Not both?”

“You would like both?”

“Please,” she breathed.

He pulled out and took the smaller phallus in his claws and pulled her hips up onto his thighs. He stroked her for a moment, the folds of her pussy, the pucker of her ass, as if admiring her. Then he pressed his cock firmly against her ass. She fell back, closing her eyes, willing herself to relax. He was slippery and tapered at one end and slipped in easily, just an inch, then a little more. She whimpered at the sensation, strange but gratifying, and he growled and pushed deeper.

“Like this, first. Not all at once.” He was giving her a chance to get used to him, filling her with one cock at a time. He began to thrust in earnest and she looked up him, his eyes burning in the dim light. The bumps on his cock were strangely pleasing, the bright sensation making her think she could come from this alone.

“You’re not hurting me,” she whispered, trying to pull him closer, and he slid all the way to the hilt, pressing firmly, hugging her thighs tight to his chest.

She felt a tingling glow inside her and wondered if the fluid from his phalluses was causing it. Whatever it was, she needed more of him. “Akigras, please. I want both.”

He pulled out carefully and turned her over till she was on her hands and knees. He thrust slowly into her ass again, making her moan into the furs, and then positioned his other cock at the entrance to her pussy.

“Push back, _et-sha_. Show me how you like it.”

There was a purr in his voice that made her think he really meant, _Show me how you like me_. She arched her spine and pushed back, sliding several inches down both his cock, crying out at the new sensation. Riding back and forth on him, small, quick movements, working him deeper.

“Is that good, _et-sha_? Do you like the feel of all of me?”

She moaned something indistinct into the furs and he grasped her hips and started to fuck her. Slowly at first, his strokes firm and deep, and then faster, a rhythm that made her insides light up. She cried out in rough, high sounds.

He leant over her, growling in her ear, “I like to bite, Meirsi. May I leave you with a fresh set of marks? Something from me that you may keep until I return. I will feel them like an anchor, pulling me back.”

“Please,” she panted, needing to feel his teeth, his harshness as he was giving her such pleasure. Akigras leaned closer and clamped his teeth to her shoulder, close to her neck, and bit down as he fucked her. Her hand dipped between her legs and she worked her clit, feeling the fierce pleasure-pain as his needle-like teeth dragged over her skin.

“Bite me again,” she managed to cry out, her orgasm rushing up. Her spine flexed as he bit into her and she came with his hundred teeth sinking into her flesh. Limp and panting, she hung her head. 

He licked the bites and growled in her ear, “I have a lot more come than your Awoken men, Meirsi. I am going to fill you up and leave you dripping.”

Her insides clenched in response to his voice and she felt another orgasm winding itself around his thrusts. She didn’t need her fingers this time. He made a guttural noise and she felt him spurt inside her, but kept thrusting, seeming to know she was close. He began to drip in rivers down the insides of her thighs, thick, blue-grey come, and she climaxed, reveling in the way her muscles squeezed tightly on his slippery lengths.

Akigras pulled out carefully and Meirsi, shaking and spent, lay down, pushing the wet parts of the furs aside. He lay with her, on his side, propped on his lower arms and casting his eyes over her.

She smiled woozily up at him. “Is this what the Eliksni do, lay together after sex?”

He trailed his claws over her body, following the patterns of light. “No, but I like your customs, _et-sha_ , when I have the time. What is this that you body does? I never learned the name.”

“It’s called a corona. Like the aura of light you see around a star.”

He formed the strange word carefully in his mouth. “Corona. It is beautiful, Meirsi. I have always liked this. The Eliksni are drawn to the light of unknown stars. We have lost the warmth of our own, pretty star.”

She smiled up at him. “Not so unknown now, am I?”

But he wouldn’t be moved to levity, still stroking her carefully, as mindful with his claws as he was brutal with his teeth. “I would like to see you again, _et-sha_.”

He took her back to the Reef, coming ashore just long enough to say goodbye, and she smoothed her hands up to his shoulders, needing to touch him one more time. “When will I see you next?”

His claws stroked the teeth marks at the back of her neck and she reached up and held onto his strong wrist. His voice dropped to a rough whisper. “I will never stay away so long that the marks fade.”

And then he was going. She leaned back against the giant _12_ painted on the bay wall, watching the engines fire up and the ship move away from the dock and down through the airlock.

* * *

Akigras was as good as his word, returning to the Reef every six or eight days to turn in bounties, collect new ones, and see Meirsi. The first thing he always did once she was naked was to examine the marks he’d left on her back, her arms her belly, and lick them lovingly.

One evening, lying together in her quarters, fresh bites on her thigh, she asked him, “What are the marks to you, really?”

He trailed his claws over her body. “They steady me, knowing there is someone out there, sweet and beautiful, who bears my marks. That is home to me now.”

“Awoken are much more dull. We say _I love you_ when someone feels like home.” She was teasing, liking to be playful even though he never was.

“We don’t say that. Maybe we used to, but not now.”

Not now. She eyed him, curious. He rarely spoke of what his kind had lost. “What do you say?”

“We say, _isylok_. _Isylok_ is the light from our homeworld star, but it’s not meant literally. _Isylok_ is something very precious.”

She rubbed her fingers along his jaw. “But that’s so sad. You told me you have turned your back on the light from your homeworld.”

“I prefer what’s in front of me, and what I can hold in my hands. That is my _isylok_.”

* * *

 _Et-sha_ ,

I am returning in two twenty-hours. I will be at your quarters by the eighth hour.

Akigras

* * *

Meirsi,

I am docking in an hour. Did you get my message?

Akigras

* * *

_> >>>>SERVER ERROR_

_> >>>>CONNECTION REESTABLISHED_

_> >>>>MAIL SERVER HAS RESPONDED_

Akigras,

I’ve been seconded to Amethyst Station for a quarter cycle as they need emergency repairs. I’m typing this on the transport. Can you meet me there?

Meirsi

* * *

_> >>>>SERVER ERROR_

_> >>>>CONNECTION REESTABLISHED_

_> >>>>MAIL SERVER HAS RESPONDED_

Akigras,

Did you get my last message? The network wouldn’t recognise my login but I think it’s fixed now. Let me know when you’re going to be at Amethyst. The food is even worse here.

Meirsi

* * *

Akigras growled under his breath. Her messages had been delayed by nearly two twenty-hours and it would take him more than another twenty-hour to get clearance to dock at Amethyst. He’d been away too long already. The marks will have healed, erasing him from her body. It was a physical pain, needing to mark her again. Needing to know that he existed someplace constant in his transient life. 

His datapad pinged again and he saw there was a message from one of the dark networks, for solo Elikni who worked and traded with both House of Wolves and the Reef Awoken. There were only two words: 

BLACK ALERT

Akigras stared at the message. There were different types of alerts among the solos. Yellow alert meant the House of Wolves was volatile because of the civil war between Skolas and Parixas. For half a cycle there’d been a blanket yellow alert. A Blue Alert was a signal to immediately leave or avoid House of Wolves airspace and vessels. A Black Alert meant the same for Awoken territory.

He checked his other servers and there was no helpful chatter, but something was going on. His best bet was to talk to the bounty handler, which was where he headed.

As he handed in his chips he asked the Awoken on duty, as casually as he could, “What’s been happening while I’ve been away?”

The handler gave him an assessing look, and then leaned closer and said, “Rumour is that the Queen will soon be siding with Skolas’ claim as Kell of House of Wolves.”

Akigras’ eyes narrowed. Why would she do such a thing? So far she’d kept out of the civil war.

“Got some fresh bounties for you. This one—”

“No. I’m fine.” Uneasy, he returned to his ship and set out for Amethyst Station. He’d just have to bluster through not having authorisation. He’d take Meirsi aboard until the black alert was rescinded. 

When the ship was on course he pinged the station for clearance using his Reef codes, but got only an error message in return. It was a long wait until he was finally in radio distance, and as soon as he was he hailed the station. 

“Amethyst Station, this is CV-189, requesting clearance to dock.”

Silence.

Akigras tried to hail them several more times as he approached the station, dread coiling through his belly. It felt like terrible luck that their messages had been delayed. That she’d been seconded at the last minute. That the black alert had been issued. She was so slight, his little star, and the wolves had sharp teeth.

Soon the station was in view, a small outpost on the dark side of the asteroid belt. It looked unnaturally quiet as he examined the bays. Too quiet. When he docked he had to use manual emergency overrides to open the bay doors. No one stopped him. No sirens began to wail.

The airlock opened and he saw blood on the floor.

* * *

**Ghost Shell Recording // Amethyst Station, abandoned Reef Outpost**

_[Eyes up, Guardian]_

Who are you? Who am I?

_[You are a Guardian, and I am your Ghost. You have no name but you may choose one for yourself. Your responsibility is to the Traveler but your life is your own.]_

The Traveler. I...feel as if know what that is already. But also I don’t? What if I don’t like the Traveler?

_[Wait and see, Guardian]_

Where did I come from? I have a whole body. These clothes. I must have come from somewhere.

_[Yes. You were dead. You died here]_

There are…bodies everywhere. Skeletons. I didn’t die here. I was _slaughtered_ here.

_[I think so. But hurry, Guardian, we need to find you a ship to get you to the Last City]_

What’s that?

_[Home]_

Home. What will I do there?

_[You will learn to wield the Light that lives inside you, and you will fight the Traveler’s enemies alongside other Guardians.]_

Who are the enemies?

_[The greatest threat to humanity is the Fallen, an extra-solar species who lost the Traveler’s Light and wish to take it back by force]_

Did the Fallen do this? Did they kill me?

_[It seems logical]_

_[Silence]_

So many bodies…Such cruelty without mercy.

_[We need to get this ship up and running. Otherwise we’ll never get out of here]_

These tools feel familiar. I think I can—oh, ugh, another body. If the Fallen did this then they deserve no mercy either. Fuck the Fallen. 

_[Silence]_

Ghost? 

_[Yes, Guardian?]_

I think I know what my name will be.

* * *

_From the lore: Skolas ordered Drevis, Wolf Baroness to attack Amethyst Station and slaughter everyone on board, and make it look as if Parixas, Skolas’ rival, was behind it. This was to provoke Mara Sov into backing Skolas’ claim as Kell of House of Wolves. It seems to have worked, for a time._

_Thank you for reading xx_


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mercy, an Awoken Hunter, and her Eliksni lover Mithrax are working on an Alliance between his House and the City but things have stalled since the events of Forsaken. 
> 
> After the Taken War, Akigras the Grasping, a former bounty hunter for Mara Sov, set up an enclave for humans and Eliksni to live alongside each other just beyond the EDZ. 
> 
> One day while visiting the Spider, he’s confronted by a ghost from his past, his Awoken lover who died during the Reef Wars.
> 
> Akigras is pronounced ah-KEE-grah.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I will Kell the mind-open Eliksni. No spider-tricks. No loyal-lies. Variisis truths. We fight for Great Machine together.“  
> —Mithrax the Forsaken, Destiny Forsaken

The Awoken woman wore Guardian gear. Her vivid blue hair was swept to one side and tied in a bun at the nape of her neck; hair the colour of space lit by cold white stars. Lonely stars.

Akigras lounged back against the wall, idly cleaning one of his ornate silver hand cannons. The Tangled Shore made him uncomfortable but the Spider was useful to him. Useful to Guardians, too, it seemed.

The woman spoke a farewell to the Spider, in Eliksni. Akigras looked up. As she turned around her eyes met his and he felt as if his two hearts had been clenched in iron fists.

 _A bar-fight while he looked on, amused. A pretty_ et-sha _with her nose pressed against the glass as she stared at her homeworld star for the first time. Blood on the floor of a space station._

The woman’s eyes grazed over him, uninterested. Then her eyes widened and she halted mid-stride. A moment later she frowned and hurried out of the room.

Atop his throne, the Spider laughed darkly. “Akigras. You look at every Awoken that comes through here like a starving dreg. Just take one if you want one.” He twisted the dead Ghost in his fingers, looking introspective for a moment. “You might find it rewarding.”

Akigras stepped forward to speak his business but his mind was still reeling. He’d made a lifetime habit of keeping far out of the Guardians' way but there was one thing about them that everyone knew: they were an army raised from the dead.

The Spider leaned forward on his rickety throne, eyes gleaming with sudden interest. “Do you know her, bounty hunter? Or did you?”

Akigras wanted to tear one of the Spider’s limbs from his body and stuff it down his throat. He hadn’t been a bounty hunter in years and his past was none of the Spider’s business. “Ether, from the Prison,” he bit out. “I hear you have some. I want to trade ether in exchange for dusklight.”

The Spider sat back, bored. “You have no ether? What a pathetic little crew you command back on earth.”

The insult rolled easily off Akigras. They’d had an influx of Eliknsi at the Emerald Enclave since the appearance of the Scorn and he was proud of it. The new Servitors would soon be up and running and meanwhile their numbers were swelling. Protect and provide. That's all he wanted to do. 

The Spider agreed to the trade and the pair negotiated the details. All Akigras could think as he bartered was, _Meirsi_.

Had it been her? Truly? Twenty cycles had passed since she’d died aboard Amethyst Station during the Reef Wars. He’d been too late to save her, the small mechanic in overalls who’d borne his teethmarks and been his home as he’d travelled all over the system. Who’d been his _isylok_. The light from his homeworld star.

If she’d been reborn as one of these Guardian creatures he had to know.

The Spider folded his hands on his fat belly. “I can feel you burning to ask about her.”

Akigras rolled his shoulders as if his exoskeleton was stiff. “You should get out more, Spider. Live your own life instead of feeding of everyone else’s.”

A deep, rasping laugh followed him out of the room but Akigras heard the unmistakable annoyed click of the Spider’s mandibles.

Hurrying up to ground level he cast his eyes around the Shore. She was there, in a House of Dusk cloak with a furred ruff, striding toward a Ketch. A Captain, resplendent in gold and purple and about half a foot taller than Akigras, turned to her in greeting. Akigras felt something tight and cold clench in his limbs as the Captain placed a possessive hand on the nape of her neck.

One of the Spider’s soldiers was there, watching the scene as well. “Arrha, who is that?”

“Mithrax, the Forsaken,” he rasped.

“It is his ketch? Forsaken by who?”

“Forsaken by Dusk. Or, was. Mithrax is now their Kell and commands many ketches. They seek an alliance with the City.”

Meirsi, with a Kell. His Meirsila. A painful longing tightened his mandibles, for hadn’t he wished on so many sleepless nights that she was here to see all that he had done? Hadn’t he done all this, secretly, in her name: building a safe place for Eliksni to live alongside humans and Awoken as they’d talked about in idle moments. It had been nothing so grand as a plan but he knew she would have been proud of all that he’d achieved. 

And here she was, doing what he sought, or something similar it seemed, without him. With another Captain. With a Kell, no less. And doing more than he dared for Akigras kept away from the City and their army of the undead.

He was burning to ask Arrha more about Meirsi and this Kell but he would only relate his questions back to the Spider. Without another word he headed for his skiff. 

* * *

“Spider, I need your help.”

The Spider looked down at the Awoken Guardian. Ah. The one who had rattled Akigras so the other day. She had returned. How pleasing.

“Everyone always comes to the Spider. Help isn’t free, you know.”

“So you've told me before,” she said dryly, folding her arms. “You know what Mithrax and I have been trying to do. We want to end all fighting between Eliksni and Guardians, officially, and for good. A truce on the Tangled Shore isn’t good enough.”

“It’s quite a feat, though, wouldn’t you agree?” The Spider twisted a dead Ghost and it made an unpleasant crunching sound.

“It is. And as long as you’re useful to the City the truce will remain. We’d like something more permanent.”

Spider shifted angrily on his throne. How dare anyone suggest that he might outlive his usefulness?

“Since Cayde’s death and the prison break the Vanguard are looking inward. Doing damage control. Waiting and seeing how things will turn out. I need them to act. I need to show them that this alliance will be helpful to them now.”

The Spider eyed her carefully. This woman was the Kell-mate of Dusk and loyal to the City, and yet Spider would bet that she had been born in the Reef. She spoke Eliksni too well. She was very fond of the Eliksni males, too. Clever ones. Ambitious ones. He had to suppress a laugh. It would be a pleasure to prime this explosive and see how big of an eruption it would cause.

Akigras thought he merely looked on, like some sort of idler. Fool. The Spider was instrumental in everything.

He leaned back on his throne, exceedingly pleased with himself and the plan that he saw unfolding before him. “There is an enclave on earth where Eliksni and humans already live alongside each other. Your Kell should ally with their leader to prove he’s friendly to humans and has no intention of seizing control of the Great Machine.”

“Mithrax doesn’t want the Traveler for himself,” she said defiantly.

“My dear, deeds speak louder than words. Akigras of the Emerald Enclave has renounced your Traveler. He wishes only to live in peace with humans on a green world. What has _your_ mate done to prove the same?”

The Awoken woman thought for a moment, and then nodded once. “It’s a good idea. What would you like in return for this information?”

The Spider laughed softly. “Oh, no need, my little morsel. This one’s one me.”

* * *

When they entered the enclave Mercy and Mithrax were allowed to keep their weapons. Mercy walked beside her mate, counting the skiffs in the meadow, the anti-aircraft turrets mounted atop the rocks. 

A Vandal escorted them down into a series of tunnels and into a large, open cavern. She’d expected a throne room, but instead she was greeted by what looked like part warehouse, part control room and part social space. There were human, Awoken and Eliksni here, and even several Exos at the screens.

A black-clad Eliksni strode toward them, and her stomach lurched. This was the leader of the Emerald Enclave, the Eliksni who'd been looking at her so strangely in the Spider's lair? There were no markings on his armour or cloak, but the hand cannons strapped to each of his thighs were ornately wrought and gleamed in the artificial light. 

There was something bleak and dangerous about him that seemed incongruous in these hopeful surroundings. How could such a place be borne from such a hard-looking individual? 

Mithrax bowed to the Eliksni, acknowledging his rank. “Akigras, the Grasping. I am Mithrax, the Forsaken, Kell of House Dusk. May we speak in your throne room?”

Akigras returned the bow, but when he straightened his eyes were on Mercy. “Mithrax, the Forsaken. There are no throne rooms here. I am not Kell.”

Mithrax shifted on his feet and Mercy had to quash a smile, imagining what he was thinking. _No throne room? Practically savages._

"You act as Kell," Mithrax pointed out, and after a moment Akigras tipped his chin up in acknowledgment.

"I fill the role that you would call Kell. We can talk up on the surface. I am open in the business I conduct."

When they walked out into the sunshine again Mercy liked what she saw. It was simple, even rustic in places, but everything was neat and the children looked well-fed and clean. More importantly they looked happy. She turned to Akigras. "What do you do here? What are you trying to achieve?" 

Akigras answered solemnly. “We live in the assumption of peace, and we prepare for that peace. Though we are able to defend ourselves.”

She smiled to herself. It was nice to hear someone talk of peace after hearing the Factions talk of unending war for so long, and she believed him about being able to protect themselves. All the adults were armed and there were armaments all around them in strategic places. 

There was so much green here, too. It was beautiful. Emerald Enclaves, the name was fitting. Mercy felt herself relax finally. _Despite their grim "Kell" I want this alliance_ , she realised with a warm feeling. _These are good people._

“You are looking at my human-mate, Akigras the Grasping,” Mithrax growled softly.

Mercy’s turned back to face them and she realised a long, taut silence had stretched between the two Eliksni.

The Captain tipped his chin up. His stance was tense as he looked at her and she felt the same sense of unease roll through her that had arrested her in the Spider’s lair the other day. 

“You _know_ my human-mate, Akigras the Grasping.”

“Meirsila,” the Captain said, slowly and carefully, still looking at her.

Her unease ratcheted up to panic and she took a step back, her hand going automatically to the gun in her hip holster. Everything about this male was initiating a visceral response. Wild heart-beat. Sweaty palms. “My name’s Mercy,” she said through cold lips.

Mithrax was silent and watchful, looking between the two of them. Finally he asked Akigras, “Were you Reefborn?”

Still looking at Mercy, the Captain said, “I lived in the Reef, during the Reef Wars.”

 _No no no._ Amethyst Station. Skolas’ slaughter of Awoken to set the Queen against his rival. This was all she’d learned about her former life, all she’d _wanted_ to learn: that she’d lived on Amethyst, and she’d died there during the Reef Wars.

Mithrax went on in a low, seething tone, “My human-mate does not know you. She does not _remember_ you. But you remember her.”

Again, the Captain tipped his chin up, and Mercy felt dread and fear flood her limbs. This couldn’t be happening. Everyone from her first life was meant to be long dead or far away. Just…gone. Forever. She wanted it that way. She needed it to be that way because her life before was a blank, white void. It was unfair that someone else might know what had happened to her back then and she didn't. 

Finally, she found her voice. “Tell me where I died if you knew me in my first life,” she challenged, but her voice was shrill. How _dare_  this Eliksni speak of her as if he knew her? How dare he lie to her face and to Mithrax’s?

The Captain’s mandibles flexed in annoyance and he said nothing. She knew that expression as she’d seen it from Mithrax enough times. _I don’t need to explain myself. You must take me at my word._  Nothing enraged her faster than Eliksni Captain stubbornness.

She pulled out her hand cannon and aimed it at his head. “Tell me or I will put a bullet in you,” she seethed. “If you can’t tell me then you’re a liar and you need to be put down.”

Mithrax tensed and made a slight movement toward her. So did half a dozen of Akigras' Eliksni and human comrades but he put out a hand out to stop them and they stayed where they were. 

Akigras was silent for several long moments and she could feel the anger radiating off him in waves. Being made to prove himself at gunpoint was a slight to his honour.

Fuck his honour. She wanted answers.

“Amethyst Station,” he said finally.

Her eyes, suddenly, stupidly, filled with tears, and the impulse to pull the trigger was even stronger. It felt like mortal weakness that this unknown male knew something about her that only she and Ghost should know.

Mithrax who stepped forward and took the gun out of her nerveless fingers and put it back into her leg holster.

“Either you leave with me now or I’m leaving without you,” she hissed at her mate.

Mithrax hesitated and his eyes flickered to Akigras. He wanted this alliance, but how could he even think about prioritising Dusk over her feelings after this Captain had—after he’d—

All right, he hadn’t actually _done_ anything to her, but it felt like he had. She was an invincible Guardian and she’d just been made to feel like a hatchling under this male's boot.

Without another word, without even looking at Akigras, Mithrax tipped his chin up, and they turned and walked out.

Back on his Ketch, she couldn’t stop shaking. 

 _Meirsila. Meirsi. Mercy._ When you said them aloud they were the same.

“It will be all right, human-mate,” Mithrax said, taking off his cloak and draping it around her. It was warm from his body heat and very heavy. “It is a surprise, but it will pass.”

“A _shock_ ,” she corrected.

He stood over her, arms folded, thinking. “Is this not something Guardians are taught to expect?”

_Guardians might know we had a first life, but none of us expect to walk into a room and come face to face with it._

She looked up at her mate, knowing he was thinking about more than just her in that moment. “You still want to talk to him about an alliance.”

Mithrax tipped his chin up in affirmation. “I have to think of the House. It is my duty. And this Akigras…”

He saw possibilities with Akigras, who had known her, who had…she squeezed her eyes shut. Traveler’s fucking light. She knew. Mithrax knew. Even the goddamn Spider had seen it and that’s why he’d been so delighted to send her to Akigras. Mercy remembered what she’d realized about herself shortly after meeting Mithrax. She’d been a Fallen fucker in her first life.

And here he was, the Fallen in question, apparently. Big, proud, and in charge. Just how she liked them, apparently.

She scrubbed a hand over her face. This alliance she and Mithrax hoped for with the City had been thwarted by setback after setback. Why couldn’t something be easy for a change?

* * *

Mithrax went back to the Enclave, but this time he went alone.

His mate was a practical mate. She would understand why he had to do this even if right now she was too unsettled to see the matter objectively.

Besides, he was curious about this Captain. Who had Mercy chosen, before him?

He and Akigras walked through the Enclave, stopping atop a rock to look down upon the clearing, lit by bright sunshine. There were so many young ones. Mithrax felt a pang of longing in his limbs. There were still no young aboard his Ketch and even when there were he had no open ground for them. They would know only the Ketch and its hull, as he had. He wanted to give his first hatchlings something more.

“There are no Guardians here,” Mithrax observed.

“We don’t seek the benevolence of the Great Machine. We want only a peaceful homeworld. A friendly star.”

His voice was flat and guarded but Mithrax heard the truth in his words. The Guardians protected their Traveler jealously and the Enclave wished to live peacefully on earth. But to fight for the Great Machine alongside the humans…

They watched an Exo leading a troupe of human and Eliksni juveniles through their daily exercises. They weren't even battle exercises. The Enclave was so different to life aboard his ship where the assumption of fighting pervaded everything they did.

“There are things that I miss from before the Scatter,” Mithrax said quietly. “That connection to so many. The Eliksni, strong and united.”

Akigras watched a bird fly overhead, wings flashing in the sunshine. “How can you miss what you never knew?”

They were both born in this system, but that didn’t mean the old one didn’t call to Mithrax occasionally. The idea of living on firm rock. The idea of home. “You miss my Mer-cee and you don’t know her.”

 

Akigras shifted on his feet. “I know her. Not like you know her, but I know her.” He looked around at the enclave. The people. The buildings. “She’s the reason for this. The reason for everything I’ve done.”

Mithrax’s eyes flickered over this Captain’s limbs. The lines and angles were clean and proud; he was telling the truth. This was an impressive place Akigras had built. There was momentum here, where Mithrax had run up against a solid Wall.

Akigras taken Mercy’s memory and built something from it. Something important.

“Tell me more,” Mithax said to Akigras, folding his arms and leaning against a rock. “About everything.”

* * *

“Human-mate. There is to be an alliance.”

Mercy was in the armoury taking stock of the wire rifles and there was a stack of ammunition in her lap. She blinked up at Mithrax from the floor. “What? Since when?”

The black-clad Eliksni came through the door behind her mate and alarm spiked through her. 

 _What had they done together, been to each other, all those years ago?_ She was burning to ask him so many questions and afraid to know at the same time.

_What if he killed me. I was murdered by Eliknsi after all._

“Akigras is to be Kell-ur of Dusk, and I am to be Kell-ur of the Emerald Enclave.”

Mercy stared at Mithrax. She thought he’d been speaking of an alliance with the City. “Kell-what? What are you talking about?”

“The things Akigras has done at the Emerald Enclave, they are the start of something important.” Mithrax was talking on, his voice strident and pleased. “Kell-ur is Kell for another House. In difficult times two Kells might come together with their two Houses. Akigras knows nothing of the workings of House Dusk. I know nothing of the workings of the Emerald Enclave. Neither could rule the other’s House, so we must lead together if there is to be an alliance.”

Mercy got to her feet and dusted off her hands. So Mithrax had been to the enclave without telling her. She chose her words carefully, trying not to lose control again even though every instinct was telling her to scream at Akigras to get out. “Mithrax. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“It is a close connection. Kell-ur shares everything that the Kell has, and vice versa.”

A cold feeling swept over her. The Eliksni had a very different idea of sharing to humans. Where humans might think “mine”, my children, my home, my emotions, the Eliksni thought “ours”. For the longest time when Mithrax said things like, _“My House is frustrated”_ Mercy assumed _he_ was frustrated and was expressing it in his over-the-top, autocratic way. But no, emotions really did permeate the Ketch as if they were carried through the air. He kept morale high through sheer self-control.

“Uh. What do you mean everything?”

“Everything. Home. Duties. Mates. It is entirely practical. Together we’ll grow strong and there will be a true Eliksni–Human alliance at last, as you wanted. The City will see that—”

But Mercy waved a hand, cutting Mithrax off. Akigras was watching her, his eyes glittering and possessive, and it made her heart pound. There was so much to unpack here and she was going to give Mithrax a good damn talking to about deciding things by himself that affected her, too, but first she needed to get one thing straight. “You mean share Eliksni mates? The females aboard the Ketch?”

“No, Mer-cee. I have no Eliksni mates. I have only a human-mate.”

Stunned, Mercy looked between the two Eliksni males towering over her, one haughty and regal, the other watchful and menacing. They were two of the most fearsome creatures she’d ever beheld, a wall of solid, determined Eliksni, and they’d decided between them what they wanted and were presenting her with their plan. Tied up in a bow. Done.

Mithrax had promised her to a complete stranger without even asking her.

She drew in in deep breath and hollered up at her mate, “ _Are you fucking kidding me?_ ” 

* * *

 

_Thank you for reading! xx_


End file.
